It's Not Over
by keacdragon
Summary: Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit. R&R Please!
1. I was blown away

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...**

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

**I was Blown Away**

Xxx _September_

The fact that Tessa didn't even blink an eye at Brains standing on three phone books stacked on a stool in front of the stove, frying eggs in a pan with bacon sizzling on the flat top, should be the first clue her life had changed entirely since her dad brought home a junk truck.

Next clue, engineering genius-inventor-billionaire Joshua Joyce lived with Tessa, Cade, and the Autobots. Third clue, Tessa didn't react a bit at Brains' lewd comments as she grabbed a travel mug of coffee and headed out the farmhouse door, waving to whichever Autobot was lounging against the massive oak right outside, (this morning it was Drift) before hopping onto the waiting ATV and heading out to find her dad. (Again…)

After Hong Kong, Joshua flew everyone back to Texas, arranging temporary housing until Tessa graduated High School. He had been more than willing to pay for the house to be rebuilt and the barns remodeled, but then Cade had picked up the phone one night to call family and friends to reassure them everything was fine…until he called Cheryl.

Cheryl Woods had gone to high school with Cade and Caroline, and she'd been there for Caroline's senior year pregnancy with Tessa that ended on graduation day, only because she'd dropped out in February after having her own daughter. Her boyfriend had been a sleaze-ball, at least that's what Cade told Tessa about him, Katherine didn't know biological father and never would. The two girls grew up together with three struggling parents who barely made it out of high school.

Cheryl was also the one who had packed up Kate in ten minutes and boarded a red-eye flight from her home in Virginia when Cade had called saying Caroline was in critical care. They'd made it in time for Kate and Tessa to be removed from the room by a nurse while Cheryl kept Cade from losing it. They'd stayed in Texas with the now Yeager family of two for six months, making sure Cade could handle things before having to leave.

Even though thousands of miles apart, the two single parents kept in touch for sanity's sake, and because for the longest time neither daughter had a license or working car. Then Hong Kong happened, and when Cade called Cheryl to check in, it had taken her exactly three minutes to get everything out of him, another five to yell at him loud enough to make both phone speakers squeal. Two weeks after Tessa graduated they moved to Iowa and Kate and Tessa had attended their first year of community college in the fall.

Cheryl's two hundred acre property was secluded enough that once off the highway the Autobots were safe to be themselves, within reason, damaging buildings wasn't acceptable.

Speaking of damaged buildings, Tessa was glad Cheryl had basically given the old machine shed up by the horse barn for Cade to use as he pleased, though it was probably out of necessity since he'd taken apart her coffee maker and forgotten to fix it one morning. Cheryl was midnight to nine am shift cop.

Lights were on in the shed and Bumblebee was lounging out in the sun in his alt mode, engine revving softly as she parked the ATV next to him. A smile and pat to the warm hood as she passed, and Tessa headed into the workshop, barely glancing at the pieces of electronics and circuit boards covering every available square inch of workbench area.

As usual, her dad was hunched over at the main bench, lamps shining bright down on him as he slept on top of his latest project.

_Poke_ "Dad?"

_Poke-shake_ "Dad."

_Poke-shake-shake_ "Dad…"

*_snore*_

_**Bang!**_ "DAD!"

"What!?"

Tessa rolled her eyes, handing her dad a rag from a nearby bin of them, making sure it was clean so he could wipe his face before passing off the coffee, "It's 8:30, Cheryl's gonna be home in an hour and you still haven't fixed the front door."

"It'll be fine, she had nine to nine last night, she won't notice if I…forgot to replace the hinges."

A sigh followed by a yelp as Tessa stole the coffee mug again, "Dad, it's the _front_ door, and not the screen one, the solid one she closes when she turns the AC on so she can sleep during the day. Plus, coming off a twelve hour shift, she's going to be cranky as hell."

"Damn."

Bumblebee was waiting for Tessa when they finally made it out of the shed, Cade putting away a few tools and covering the exposed circuit board he was working on with a static protector. Tessa slid into the Camaro while Cade hopped on the ATV to keep the grease off Bee's leather interior. And another day had begun…

Xxx

Crosshairs tweaked the wiring in his wrist, occasionally glancing up at Drift trying to teach Bumblebee how to handle a blade as long as the young mech was tall. Prime may have left Hound in charge, but that didn't stop everyone from testing the limits, especially without the fear of being discovered if their antics got out of hand, well…at least until Cade or Cheryl yelled at them.

The past year had been strange, but better than the three years before Hong Kong, Crosshairs landed after receiving Prime's message that had originated in Egypt, he'd raced towards Earth, clipping an steroid and ending up off course and in stasis when he landed, just eight months after Chicago and NEST's disbandment, Ratchet had restored him enough to explain what had happened since 2011, and sent him on the run. He hadn't ever trusted humans.

Tessa and Cade had earned a small bit of his trust, Joshua had absolutely nil alongside Cheryl (only because in all honesty, the cop scared the crap out of most people and was a downright bitch to the bots most days) Shane…he still needed to prove himself along with Darcy and Sue who were rarely around. Kate…

Well, she'd earned a lot of respect the minute she met the bots, mainly because she'd had a hand gun strapped to her hip and ear muffs around her neck from shooting targets when they'd pulled up. Drift had said something that rubbed Crosshairs the wrong way and just as a fight broke out Kate had literally finished it herself.

She'd shot them, hitting Crosshairs' wrist and the ricochet bullet lodged in Drift's helm side panels. After that the unspoken rule of no fighting around Kate or any humans, lest they slip up and hurt someone.

Trust was another thing; Kate had a radio unit always on her hip and a headset that was almost always chattering to someone or another, and judging by how many times she had stuttered and changed names or what she was saying the first few days to cover up what was going on, both at home and on the other side of the communication link. Nothing had happened yet, but that wasn't stopping Crosshairs from being on edge…

_Clink! Bang!_

"Drift! That had better not have been a gun!"

"Y'all better haul aft! Ya woke up Cheryl!"

Cade was laughing his ass off as Bumblebee and Drift transformed and gunned it away from the house, heading up the gravel road that traversed the majority of the property as Cheryl ran from the house, work boots untied and half covered by the thin pajama pants she had on with a tank top, her gun however…locked and loaded, waiting to hit whichever transformer had fired off a round near the house.

Cade finally made it outside with a drill in his hand to start working on the front door before Cheryl noticed, smirking as he waved to Hound and Crosshairs from the front steps.

"Mornin' guys, just another day huh?"

Hound chuckled, fiddling with the missile round in his denta as he lounged back against the hill along one side of the house.

Crosshairs rolled his optics, but managed a slight smirk as horn blaring echoed back to them, everything was completely normal…

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><p><strong>What do you think? Review? pretty please?<strong>


	2. What could I say?

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...**

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

**To _CRAZYCOLORS098, Lord Revan Flame, StoryMakerr014, _and _Galem_, for the Follows and Favorites. And thank you to _Quirkyquizler Femme_ for the Follow, Fave and Author Fave. Thank you for the Fave from _Miss Andromeda_ Prime, and _supergrandefan,_and the Follow from _wordgeek1000_.  
><strong>

**And to _Shadow Kat_, thank you for anonymous review!**

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><p><strong>Chapter Two<br>**

**What Could I Say?  
><strong>

Xxx _September, Yellowstone Park  
><em>

_...worthless..._

_...traitor..._

_...betrayal..._

_...scum..._

_...defiler..._

_...what have you done..._

_...ruined..._

_"You have disgraced your title...your heritage...and all those who have followed you..."_

_"See this new beginning...as your end...you won't live long enough to see it through..."_

_"...go now...tell if you must, or do not...it matters not to us...you are not one of us...you have no purpose...nothing to live for..."_

_"You are nothing..."_

_...nothing..._

xxx

He woke up screaming, glad he'd hidden far enough away that his howls were not heard by any other than the birds and wildlife that dared be near him.

His intakes heaved as he stood, leg struts shaking as joints creaked with exertion, cables straining to maintain tension. The skies were stormy and dark, no solace to be found in the stars tonight. Clouds didn't threaten, a wildfire ravaged the hills to the Southwest, leaving the air thick with smoke that choked.

The resident wolf pack began its nightly song, the deep tones while to some brought feelings of being alive and one with nature only made him mournful, memory bits flashing against his fore thinking and adding to his darkened mood.

Rest would not come again tonight, or for several nights, it hadn't come easily for so long now it would seriously surprise him to get more than a few hours in a week.

Nausea rolled in his tanks, earning a grimace before he set out to find the gravel service road that connected the various camp sites throughout the park, might as well knock out a few hundred more miles before concealing himself again...

xxx

_Iowa, 10:00pm_

xxx

The double panel gate blocking the driveway was magnificent, the wrought iron twisted into beautiful vines and leaves stretching up several feet above even the top of his cab, the top arch a beautiful metal rose. The fence attached on either side was stunning black metal that stretched into the trees, keeping anything not small enough to slip between the bars out. The call box was simple, he hacked it with ease once he recognized one of his team's handiwork in the programming.

Tiny rivers stones crunched under his tires as he rolled along the lengthy driveway, dark trees on one side and green pasture on the other, the black cattle looking up at his passing but unresponsive otherwise.

The sound of pedes was barely heard over his tires, he'd cut his engine, the transformation was seamless and just as soft, the Bugatti following after leaving the guard post hidden in the trees.

They were waiting, the other three standing silently as he slowed to a stop, checking his surroundings before allowing himself to transform. He rolled his shoulders, taking a second to enjoy the satisfying pop as the "muscles" relaxed before he examined each member of his team before him.

All were safe, functioning, almost thriving even, Drift wasn't reaching for his blades every few seconds, Hound was relaxed-no where near as many weapons on his frame, Crosshairs was more at ease-not scanning the perimeter at the slightest noise, and Bumblebee-it eased his processor and spark that the black and yellow scout was bouncing again, just about shaking he was so happy.

Hound spoke first, saying what they were all thinking.

"Good ta have ya back Prime."

xxx

The others didn't notice when he didn't settle into recharge with them, instead he walked the gravel road running through the property, taking in the barns, and sheds, and pastures with varying sizes of black cattle. Smaller pens held single animals close to a large horse barn, the sounds of sleepy horses reaching his audios as he passed. One field was a wreck, deep gouges in the dirt from sparring matches, at least his team had kept on their skills in his absence

The Bots had talked for a couple hours, recounting the last year. While he was pleased they'd found a sort of refuge, he was still on edge...what little they had told him about Cheryl and Katherine only added to his worries, Cemetery Winds may have been disbanded, but there were still others more than happy to kill an Autobot on sight, the danger was still there, still very real.

Coyote howls miles away made him scan his surroundings yet again, frame tensing as he secured his position, rest would not come tonight.

xxx

Morning came all too soon, and with it, the obvious fact others would know he'd returned. Hound and Bubmlebee were more than happy to distract Cheryl while she did morning chores in one of the "lower" barns closer to the house. Cade fed the horses, if he'd gone any further up the gravel road he'd have found Optimus first thing.

For once, seeing someone considered an ally didn't appeal to him, it was easier on him to let Drift make sure Cheryl left to run errands before having the bots gather those humans Prime knew. It would be easier on everyone...

The sound of Cade's old truck roaring to life and leaving lifted a weight from his frame as he stood from where he'd been hiding behind a shed that resembled Cade's old barn, full of half finished projects. Crosshairs was waiting for him, walking with him back to the main yard where the others were gathered and Bee was supposed to have gotten the humans to meet them.

Unsurprisingly, Cade and Joshua were arguing right away, not even noticing his arrival, Shane was more interested in sneaking a kiss from Tessa then anything else, Tessa...

"Optimus!"

He couldn't help mirroring her smile, even if to a smaller degree, the others settled quickly with her shout, Cade stepped forward first when he crouched to be closer.

"Well, didn't think we'd see you this soon, but still, good to see you Prime."

"It is good to see you as well Mr. Yeager-"

"-Optimus..."

"Cade...I trust you are all well."

The man beamed, "Better than that! Got a new place and Tessa's in school."

"And he can't throw a fuss 'bout Tess and I datin', she's nineteen..."

The collective statement should have earned a chuckle, instead he merely nodded along. "Shut up Shane!"

Cade shook his head, "It's good to have you back, the government arranged for basic sanctuary for the Bots here, as long as no laws are broken on or off the property, but I know some officials are getting restless and want answers that we just couldn't give."

His frame tensed, and not just from Cade's information, he almost brushed it off, keeping weapon protocols primed to activate. "I will assist in anyway I can, though the reception of my return may upset what fragile trust you've been able to establish, my being here will need to be kept strictly secret..."

He whipped around, gun sliding into place on his arm and pointing at the intruder just as the others yelled.

The brunette standing at the end of the barrel crossed her arms, cocked her hip, and raised an eyebrow as she eyed the metal hole in front of her.

"Do it, I dare ya."

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><p><strong>Chapter two! Thank you for reading! Review...please...it's right below...<br>**


	3. It all seemed to make sense

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...**

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

**To _TexTau,_ and _Leader of the Wolves_, thank you for the follows!  
><strong>

**And to _Shadow Kat_, thank you for guest review, yes the first bit was sad...it will look brighter soon.  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Chapter Three<br>**

**It all seemed to make sense...  
><strong>

Xxx _September  
><em>

Tessa bit back a smirk when she saw Crosshairs shift how he stood, even if Optimus actually tried to shoot Kate, the green and white mech would intercept it.

Prime didn't relax his stance, only lowered his gun enough to see the human better.

"Who are you?!"

"Name's Kate, I'm sure at least one of these guys mentioned me. Kinda hard not to since I pay the fuel bill every month, _*ahem*_ Hound..."

The former wrecker scoffed, but smirked at Kate's good natured smile. Her stance shifted to casual, hands loose on her hips as she leaned back against the nearby gate, showing no fear with a thirty foot transformer staring her down. Cade moved to stand between them, glaring at Kate like a father would at an ornery child.

"Put the gun away Prime, she isn't going to do anything."

"I wouldn't say that...after all I did shoot Drift and Crosshairs within a few minutes of meeting them."

"Kate!"

"What?"

Tessa gave up and laughed, having to turn away from her best friend when she winked back.

Optimus shifted so the gun rested on his shoulder, pointing at the sky behind him versus the humans, "I assume there was a solid reasoning behind it."

"The two started fighting, I don't mind if they do just not near people, especially considering we'd just met...you guys definitely need to work on first impressions."

A slight grunt was all Prime awarded her, tucking the gun back away after Kate had sighed and handed Cade her own hand gun, holding her hands up to imply she was unarmed now and only there peacefully.

"Sorry if I interrupted, thought it would be easier if I knew who you were so I can distract my mom...her temper isn't something to mess with...especially since her hours got screwed up and she's without a cruiser right now."

Cade snorted, "That explains a lot..."

Prime didn't speak, merely stared, face plates still as he watched the girl climb the gate to sit comfortably on the top bar like it was her plan all along. He glanced to the others, Tessa was trying her hardest to keep a straight face, but her friend wasn't making it easy. Shane just seemed indifferent with Joshua just unamused. The Bots...Crosshairs had shifted, ready to grab Kate if Optimus drew his gun again, Hound was in position to jump at Prime if need be, Drift and Bumblebee just as tense.

He allowed himself to examine Kate further, again impressed with humans who did not break beneath his stare. Her stance was laidback and open, totally at ease on the metal gate before him, her hands gripped the bar loosely, more for something to do than anything else, not tight in worry or tension, and not drumming like she was anxious. She met his gaze evenly, eyes honest and calm, occasionally glancing at the others if they moved enough to attract her attention, then her gaze was merely curious not accusatory. Her heart rate was a little fast, but her breathing was calm and she wasn't fidgeting.

In all honesty, she reminded Optimus of Will Lennox when the two had been able to be properly introduced, then again Will had had a few beers already and had been hanging with Ironhide for a couple hours already before meeting Prime. Will had been accepting, curious, and maintained confidence even though he admitted later he was rather freaked out, Kate was no different, though Optimus still had a feeling there was something else to her.

"I have the feeling you already know who I am."

Kate's smile was sincere, "I do, thought I'd be polite though and welcome you to Willow Creek Ranch, and let you all know my mom will be back by noon so if you don't want your audios blown I'd disappear by then until I can get her used to the idea of _five_ transformers here."

Optimus nodded, shoulders lowering a little as his frame lost its tension, "Thank you, and not just for the greetings and aid with your mother, but for accepting us."

She shrugged casually, "No reason not to, as long as nothing gets wrecked, and you guys aren't burning crop circles in my pastures I really don't mind at all."

A low noise made it past Prime's lip plates before he could stop himself, "I will ensure that does not happen."

"See! We're gonna be great friends!"

xxx

Cade had to admit, Kate handled that a lot better then he thought she would, She'd left soon after Optimus had relaxed enough to turn his focus elsewhere, and she'd taken Shane with her. The racer was just plain irritating, Tessa had gone with only because she could keep Brains from being stupid once he was told the news.

Prime told them little, he'd traveled for close to five months before finding the Creators, handed back the seed and had left. All of them figured there was more to it, but either he wasn't allowed to tell...or really didn't want to.

One thing for sure, Cade would have to get Optimus alone, something was seriously bothering him, and it wasn't just two more people knowing about their continued existence.

For now, Optimus was allowing Hound to check him over, saying he hadn't had an easy reentry and wanted to make sure he was alright. Drift had headed out on patrol, basically his way of processing through things. Crosshairs had taken Joshua to the city to speak with a client, the engineer working on programming software for companies, what he'd started with when beginning KSI. Bumblebee and Shane had left to pick up car parts and food, leaving the girls to occupy Brains and break the news to Cheryl when she arrived.

Cade was checking horses, taking some from the barn and out to paddocks, returning others to stalls to groom and keep comfortable with the fans in the barn. Some loved the attention, craved it even, butting their heads against Cade until he petted them. Others...

There was a reason he wore steel toed boots.

The main fighter was a lanky standardbred Cheryl had bought last year about the time they'd moved in. The gelding was a rich brown with matte black stockings and black mane and tail. Cade hated him, and the horse hated Cade, heck hated anyone other than Tessa. Two weeks into owning him Cheryl had all but signed the horse over to her. "Scope" was now totally Tessa's horse.

Of the twelve horses on the farm, Cade really only liked one of them, a dirty tan almost rust colored champagne gelding named Ferric, cranky older horse that didn't mind Cade coming into the barn smelling like grease and various other things that wasn't an apple or peppermint.

SnR, the oldest horse on site, grunted irritably when Cade came to take him outside, more interested in standing under his fan, and a ripe age of 23, the quarter horse had served well, and CAde wasn't interested in getting bit that morning while fighting with him.

"Alright buddy, you can stay in today."

That earned another grunt, SnR going back to ignoring the world and dozing away the hours until he was fed again.

Cade stepped out in the bright sunlight, taking a moment to soak in what had become his life, cattle grazed happily in the pastures, barn cats flitted in an out of buildings after mice, and the occasional sound from the Autobots echoed loud enough to be heard across the farm.

Until one such sound was retching...

Hound was in front of him a minute later, optics wide and intakes heaving, whether from running or from what was going on.

"Yer not gonna believe this..."

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading! Review please?<strong>


	4. You've taken away everything

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...**

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four<br>**

**You've taken away everything  
><strong>

Xxx _Washington D.C, NEST HQ 2011__  
><em>

Pain shot through his frame just as fast as the bullets rained down against his armor, the small rocket had hit his hitch plate as he'd transformed to get away faster. Sideswipe was right on his bumper, cursing in both English and Cybertronian as they raced from the building, hitting the streets amidst squealing tires and blaring horns.

Epps was cussing over the comm., screaming back at the men firing at them and he fired off warning shots. Lennox was just as pissed, taking to glaring out Dino's windshield as they drove away, splitting up to rendezvous at another location and figure out what in the Pit was going on.

Two days...had it really only been two days since Chicago...what...what happened?

:Ratchet to Prime!:

:Prime here:

:You alright? Saw that rocket hit you.:

:I'm fine, skimmed my fifth wheel, nothing else.:

:Understood, be careful in case it fractured anything from the shock wave, I'm still uneasy about that arm repair.:

:I'm _fine_ Ratchet.:

:Yeah-yeah...Ratchet out.:

He shifted gears, riding out the throttle and pushing the accelerator harder to keep up this speed as long as he could. Leadfoot suddenly swerved out in front of him, keeping pace easily even with his cab caved in to almost look like a convertible.

"_Lennox to Optimus._"

"Prime here."

"_Hey Big Guy, Epps and are on sixth st, gonna be a bit longer for us to reach the highway, we're lagging right now...just passed Bumblebee, he's got Sam and Carly, they're heading your way from Pierce Avenue, should meet you by exit 50-B_."

"Understood, Leadfoot and Sideswipe are with me, we'll watch for them."

"_Hear ya Boss Bot, Lennox out_."

Police cars were beginning to tail them, trying to out do the alien engines...they wouldn't make it...

xxx

A couple of them made it to the rendezvous after Optimus and the others, all were just about numb to everything. Dutch was shaking as he stumbled out of the Mercedes he'd hot wired and stolen, barely acknowledging Sam and Carly where they sat on Bee's hood. Simmons was staring at nothing from the back seat, for once not interjecting anything sarcastic.

Dino came roaring up, all but ejecting Will before transforming and punching the wall. Lennox was no better, furious as he kicked at a piece of debris on the floor, dropping his gun and beginning to pace, running his hands through his hair in frustration. Epps had somehow gotten separated at some point, he and Topspin would be taking the long way to get there.

Ratchet pulled up seconds later, transforming the second Charlotte Mearing exited his cab, anger written on her face just as it burned in everyone else.

"I...damn...I...fuck Optimus?"

Prime shook his head, moving for the first time since he'd transformed upon entering the abandoned warehouse and crouching against a wall. "Minutes before the military arrived and engaged, I received a call from the SecDef, saying something was wrong and to keep everyone inside NEST to keep quiet and contained until further information could be relayed, the call was cut when we were interrupted, several people burst into the SecDef's office shouting, the line went dead shortly after."

Lennox growled, "Where's Morshower?"

Mearing sighed, crossing her arms and rubbing at her face, "I've tried calling Morshower, the Board, Diego Garcia...either everyone's clammed up or been shut up."

That didn't help things, Optimus lowered his gaze to the floor, rubbing at his still healing shoulder and ignoring Ratchet's gaze.

"How didn't anyone see this coming?"

That summed things up...Carly was right, they were blindsided.

Lennox's phone rang, and he put it on speaker once he saw the ID.

"Epps! Where are ya man?"

"_Headin' home_..."

"What?"

"_I said I'm headin' home...gotta get to Jana_..."

"Epps...what the hell..."

"_Topspin's dead_."

That got everyone's attention, Leadfoot dropped his gun, the resounding bang snapping everyone out of their shock.

"Sgt Epps, are you sure? What happened?"

"_Damn right I'm sure Boss Bot...bastards fuckin' shot him while I was still inside, dove out the back window when the somersaulting finally stopped and tried to return fire, by the time I was able to take cover from their bullets, someone had pulled out a rocket launcher...Topspin was mid-transformation when they started blasting...dammi_t..."

"Are you injured?"

"_Nah, some scratches only Doc, I'm alright, heading back towards base and getting my car, the place is deserted, everyone's on the run and the other guys are out chasin' them. I'm sorry man...I can't do this shit...watched Jazz, watched 'Hide...now watched Topspin offline...damn, they wouldn't even say why...just shot until the lights went out...It's over...we're done..._"

"Epps..."

"_No Will...NEST is done...there's government officials with every SUV of soldiers, their weapons are high grade ones...worse than sabots...their rockets can tear through armor like paper...it's over_..."

The line went dead a minute later after no one was able to come up with a response.

"Will...what do we do...my parents are still downtown, I was supposed to meet up with them an hour ago..."

Sam's words struck home, Lennox was supposed to be boarding a plane to go back to Sarah for a couple days, hell all of them were supposed to get a break before starting in on clean up.

"Prime..."

Optimus looked around, everyone's eyes and optics on him. He didn't know...

xxx

NEST Board of Directors staff were the first to contact them, arranging a meeting with Optimus, neutral location and peaceful intentions.

That was the first time Prime was truly burned, they'd arrived, all humans out and exposed so everyone could talk comfortably.

It had crashed into chaos within minutes. Optimus had tried to provide cover for his Bots and his human allies, ducking over Sam to block the bullets before a rocket hit his back and sent him rolling.

That was the last time Optimus saw Samuel Witwicky, being dragged away from Bumblebee and Carly in handcuffs as he fought against the men holding him. Prime could only watch in horror as Sam screamed for him to help...to do_ something_...

There was nothing he could do...Rockets were being aimed at the Autobots, none knew what to do...their orders were to never harm humans, and now...

Optimus stepped closer, finding the man in charge, "Why are you doing this? Who are you and What have you done?"

The next words from that man would forever leave chill through Prime's frame, and haunt him for the next several years, that was the last time Optimus saw the Wreckers, he parted from Ratchet two months later and send the CMO and Bumblebee into deep hiding as he ran as well. He never saw Lennox or Epps or Simmons or Mearing again...

"A better question for you is what have _you_ done Prime? I'm feeling lenient tonight so you all have one hour to get off this planet and never look back..."

Prime had left at a run, transforming mid-air when he'd jumped over an SUV blocking his path, slamming down on his tires had hurt...but the burning rage in his spark was the worst agony he'd ever felt.

"I'm Harold Attinger, and you'd better run..."

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><p><strong>I wanted to do a background chapter, to help understand what's going on in Prime's processor, I'll probably do one or two more later on. What do you think? Review please?<br>**


	5. And I can't deal with that

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...**

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

**Thank you to _Dances in the twilight, _and _Blackfire-Autobot_ for the follows! And thank you for the fave and follow from _Answerthecall_! Thanks for the fave from _Erienyes0913_!  
><strong>

**Thank you to _Shadow Kat_ for his/her guest reviews! Yes Barn kitties! Can't have a farm without them and yeah...humanity stinks.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five<br>**

**And I Can't Deal With That  
><strong>

Xxx _September__  
><em>

Cade sighed heavily as he sat on the hill just above Optimus, providing silent support while Hound talked with the others. Optimus was half laying against the hill, both arms stretched out and gripping a thick tree trunk in each servo, one leg bent up at the knee, the other laid out in front of him.

The Creators hadn't just taken the seed back and let Optimus go, they'd added something for him to bring back.

Hound had dubbed it a parasite for lack of better medical terminology, he had very basic field medic training and even that was stretching the description.

A mass of protoform and wires had attached itself between Optimus' tanks and back strut, woven into his systems to the point that any attempts at extraction would lead to killing Prime even faster than the thing was doing already.

It was feeding off his energon and systems, so far it hadn't grown any besides firmly attaching itself to Prime's systems. Hound didn't know what to do...upon discovery he'd tried to examine it further, attempting to take a biopsy...

The thing had reacted, pulling against Prime's systems and causing immense pain. Optimus had purged what little fuel was left in his tanks after regaining the ability to see straight.

Enter Cade after Hound had rushed to find him.

Optimus was supposed to be getting some sleep, he hadn't been recharging properly for a couple weeks since he'd made it back to Earth. Currently he was riding out the cramps wracking his frame, trying not to cry out from the pain firing across his neural systems.

Cade moved closer to Optimus' helm, wincing in sympathy at the heating emanating from the metal, Prime's optics were dull, unable to stay fully lit he was so exhausted.

"Optimus?"

"Hmm?"

"Think you can handle water on your armor?"

Prime winced, servos tightening briefly and the trunks cracked slightly, "Why?"

"You're overheating, don't think that's going to help any, water will help get you cooled down."

The mesh shifted, intakes hitching slightly before he nodded. Cade stood, backing up to move around Optimus when he suddenly stood up, almost toppling back over before transforming.

xxx

xx

xxx

While anger management for some was breathing exercises or stress balls, for Tessa it was the ability to jab a needle into something...today's project was vaccinating a pasture of market steers, they'd grow another twelve months before slaughter but right now needed vaccines. Which let Tessa vent my giving her something to focus on and allow her to poke something with a sharp object.

For Cade, anger management was working...usually on a project for someone to get paid, if that didn't work then he'd build something new. Right now he was trying to figure out how to build a smaller version of a synthetic energon generator, something the Bots had been needing for awhile now but the urgency wasn't there...

Until Optimus started losing his short supply too quickly...

Each Bot had an emergency vial from when Ratchet had seen them last, the medic not allowing them to go without a back up just in case. Over the last two years, one by one they'd each used up that meager bit, leaving all of them dangerously on the edge of running on fumes. Optimus and Hound, holding larger frames, had held more than one vials of emergency energon as back ups for everyone, and while space travel had burned off Prime's, Hound had one last vial to try and stabilize their leader.

Prime burned through it in under and hour.

Now Cade was desperately trying to figure out how to build the machine and tell Cheryl why she'd have to add radiation exposure insurance to her policy...

Hound was keeping watch over Prime, having finally gotten him to fall into recharge. Crosshairs was trying to remotely hack into government files to get back into the old NEST databases, Ratchet had uploaded his energon 'recipes' into the server a few weeks before Chicago, just in case his own systems crashed for some reason...or in this case he was offlined.

So far, the only ones succeeding in their endeavors were Kate and Tessa working with cattle with the help of Trey and Tony, Cheryl's farm hands. Trey drove a Jeep Wrangler V-8, the shocks on that thing were amazing. He was the main guy to check the far pastures with his off roading vehicle, and it was fun as hell to go mudding in. Tony had a F150 raptor stick shift, he did most of the hauling for the farm.

The two guys would die for the girls, not for romantic reasons, they were just devoted to their work and loved helping in anyway they physically could. While they knew of the Bots and occasionally spoke to them, they respected privacy and didn't pry, they had picked up from Tessa that something was going on, and had jumped into action to keep Cheryl quiet and keep things moving farm wise when Kate had been clued in that Optimus wasn't doing well health wise.

Cade had to give them credit, both guys could have it all in a city or even on another ranch, definitely better work environment versus being the only two guys working a 200 acre cattle operation with help from Kate and Tessa when they had time, and Cade when he could. Cheryl had hired more guys originally when she started the place five years ago, but when she'd told Cade and Tessa to move in with her, she dropped most of them for safety's sake. Trey and Tony had refused to leave until she'd explained herself and then they'd dug their heels in even more.

Had to respect that level of loyalty, especially since they got paid worth nothing, paychecks came every four months or so after market auctions and they took a couple truck loads in of pasture raised steers or market heifers. Cheryl made up for it by providing food, living space, and paying for their fuel, it seemed to be enough because the guys never left.

Cade looked up from his rough sketches he'd been working when Optimus, who'd been parked outside, woke up and transformed violently, falling to his knees once complete.

The mech was heaving for air when Cade stepped out to check on him, finding Hound down by where Tess and the others were, helping fix the squeeze chute.

"You alright Optimus?"

Prime nodded, rubbing at his optics as he sat down and leaned against the machine shed, "Yes, just..."

"Bad dreams?"

A heavy sigh before Prime nodded again, "...we call them memory fluxes, we cannot dream originally like humans can, merely replay data stored in our memory core, but the spark...can influence the fluxes via emotional memories, they sometimes get...scrambled."

Cade nodded in understanding, not sure if his first thought of physical contact would be appreciated so he stayed standing away.

He didn't realize it, and for that matter neither did Prime or any of the other Autobots, but he really should have gone with his gut on that one...it would have changed everything.

Things were slowly spiraling out of of control and dealing with it was about to get a lot harder.

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><p><strong>Well? Review please!<br>**


	6. I try to see the good in life

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...**

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

**Thank you for the fave and follow from _Generalhyna_, _TheBossbot, _and_ mmudogwa_! And thank you for the follow from _seekerblackout_!  
><strong>

**Thank you _Shadow Kat_! Okey dokey then m'lady! And yay kittez!  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Six<br>**

**I try to see the good in life  
><strong>

Xxx _September__  
><em>

None of the bots were having any luck hacking into NEST's old database, and it was starting to send temper's boiling, which with five giant robotic males who were already tense as it was...not a good combination.

Stony...or more like metallic silence had settled over the bots when Cade left the house with a beer in hand, planning to enjoy a couple hours just talking and hanging with the mechs.

Bumblebee was the one currently trying to hack into the network, sitting stock still against the machine shed near the house that held the wash bay and a small garage that Trey and Tony used to fix vehicles or tools. The bubbly scout's optics were dim, white lines flashing across them as he worked, the advantage of having a high-powered computer for a brain...processor...whatever...

Optimus was leaning against the corner of the shed where it was stronger, giving Cade a short nod of acknowledgement before letting his optics dim, either in thought or in sleep. Hound was fiddling with a gun, trying to ignore everything else, Cade figured he'd tried last since he was leaving dents in the gun with his digits. Drift was most likely meditating, and Crosshairs...

The mech was staring at nothing, frame tensed and likely to lash out if disturbed. They desperately needed that data...

xxx

xx

xxx

While most days, Trey and Tony were stuck doing hours of hard labor, there were a few mornings where the to do list had been crossed off enough times to warrant a break. And that meant taking about a hundred feet of hose, stretching it from the hydrant outside the horse barn to the one empty paddock that never held animals. When Cheryl had first had the hands set fence posts and build the pens, they'd sprayed the ground with weed killer, only the first pen had accidentally been sprayed with _everything_ killer, leaving the 20x20 patch just dirt.

Now soon to be mud...

xxx

Optimus wasn't sure what woke him that morning, for once it wasn't his tanks rolling and threatening to lose what little he'd managed to consume the night before. Cheryl's beat-up truck was still parked in the driveway, an electrical cord stretched up under the hood and hooked to a battery charger. Cade's truck was parked behind it, no sign of either driver anywhere.

None of the Bots were nearby either, the areas near the house they frequented were empty. He was essentially alone.

Until Prime heard Tessa scream.

...

It was hard to tell Kate and Tessa apart, both were in tank tops and jeans, hair in messy buns...

And both coated in mud. A hose was pumping water into the slight dug down pit of once loose dirt, now sloppy mud as Tessa and Kate teamed up to try and drag Trey and Tony down, or actually it was Trey and Drift. All four mechs had activated their holoforms and were taking apart in this impromtu mad battle. Even Cheryl was in on the action, already sporting thick mud streaks on her jeans and arms, the hand print on the dead middle of her back matched Cade's hand, and explained the huge splotch on the front of her shirt. Cade wasn't much better...patches covering him like he'd been the target of thrown handfuls.

"Mornin' Prime! Figured all this noise would wake ya up."

Dropping into his alt mode, Prime activated his own holoform and stepped from the cab, following the others' example and keeping his clothing casual with worn work boots, jeans, and a red flannel button up with a gray under shirt.

Kate squealed as Trey tackled her, adding even more mud to her hair as he tried to untie the strip of rope acting as a flag in the game, a well aimed kick sent him rolling and face planting into the mucky water as Kate scrambled up, yanking the rope from her belt and throwing herself at Bee on the sidelines, helping him tie it to his belt loop before he dived in as a replacement.

Drift went after Bee first, avoiding the mud balls Tessa was throwing at him to try and drag the scout into the mud and at least get him as filthy as everyone else.

"Ow Shit! Drift watch your feet I'm on your side man!"

Tessa laughed, struggling to move to the fence as Trey went down again when Drift and Bee hit him as they wrestled.

Cheryl smirked, but kept her whistle tucked in her teeth in case she had to call a stop to the mayhem, glancing to her left she found Optimus leaning against teh fence next to her, confusion marring his face.

"G'morning, you must be Optimus Prime."

"I am."

She smiled, running a dirty hand through equally dirty hair, "Name's Cheryl Woods, I'd shake your hand but I'm covered."

He nodded in understanding, eyes flitting between her and his team. Cheryl laughed, "Tony and Trey came up with this idea when we had a couple hot head greenhorns join the farm a couple years ago. One of the idiots left the hose running in the water trough of the pen nearby and it flooded this one, it was already dug down to try and revive the dirt to grow grass again. Tony had found the mess and hauled the rookie out to fix it...what started as a fist fight turned into an all out brawl of all the hands, Kate, few of her friends, and a couple guys from my department...don't think the bunkhouse showers were ever the same after that and now it's just a way to relieve stress."

Prime nodded again, watching Drift and Bee wrestle, whenever two of the autobots were in the pen, they only went after one another, ensuring none of the humans were caught accidentally by the bots strength, otherwise they mostly just threw mud at each other.

Hound called an end to Drift and Bee rolling around like loose bolts, switching Tony out for Trey, Tessa out for Crosshairs, Bee for Cade, and Drift for Shane.

Needless to say Cade got Shane down and the rope off pretty quick.

Trey and Crosshairs on the other hand...the mech was having none of the idea of just throwing mud back and forth til the human tapped out for another Bot, rushing the man and aiming to tackle him down. Trey changed that by charging back, side stepping at the last minute to trip up the running holoform.

Crosshairs went down with a satisfying splatter.

Which didn't help at all...Prime was beginning to wonder just how much Trey would be able to take of an angered mech, until he watched closer. Trey was legitimately fighting back, using blocks and hits a trained fighter would use. One such hit sent Crosshairs tumbling, only enraging him further as he stood up with a roar. Trey took it all in stride, blocking the now erratic swings, and taking the blows with stoic patience.

He was letting Crosshairs vent without damaging anything.

Now it made sense why Trey's clothing consisted of the work shirt and jeans, plus the padded torso guard and leg pieces a bull rider would wear. He'd been planning this out for awhile.

Prime watched as Crosshairs' movements slowed, calming down to become meager flails until they stopped all together, the holoform heaving for air and shaking from exertion.

"Better?"

Trey's voice held no sign of his beating, but his movements were slow and cautious, arms dropped to his sides.

Crosshairs nodded, trying to control his breathing as he wiped at his face to get the mud off.

The others stood around quietly, and that's when Prime realized what Trey and Tony had done. While Bee and Drift would never actually hurt anyone, they'd been paired against Cheryl and Tony, both experienced enough to take the hits that needed to get out, running the energy out and in turn burning off the frustration they'd all been feeling. The only reason he hadn't seen it sooner was Cheryl had already taken off her padding, having dropped it to the ground where the filthy equipment blended right in as it dried.

Hound was the only one among them who'd been truly keeping his cool, Prime figured it was because he'd had to, now it was making more sense that his occasional helping on the farm was more than just once in awhile.

Cade let the silence hang for a minute before going and turning off the water to move the hoses, hooking up a water heater and pump to send out sprays of warm water to clean off.

The resulting water fight wasn't as entertaining when the pump broke and they lost the heat.

xxx

Prime wasn't sure what had made him say yes when Kate invited him to follow her and Cade on the only operating pair of ATV's to go check fencing on the far pastures and to check on the steers that had been left to their own devices for a couple weeks. The water fight had ended when Cheryl had declared everyone clean enough to go back to what they were supposed to be doing. Meaning the bots to do whatever, and Trey and Tony to building a new shed.

Optimus had to admit the mud fight was a good idea, it allowed his team to vent and work off some energy without hurting each other or anyone who wasn't able to take it, and for some it was downright funny. Now Prime was beginning to think the invitation to drive for a couple hours over rough terrain was his turn at wearing off some frustration.

Both humans had started racing as soon as they had rounded the first bend in the road that lead away from the main farm. While no where near pushing his limits, it felt good for Optimus to have to keep speed with them and control his large alt form on the loose gravel, one wrong move and he'd slide out of control and most likely take one or both ATV's with him.

They'd raced for about twenty minutes before coming up to the first gate, Kate hopping off her ride to open it and roll through, waiting until Prime had followed Cade to shut it.

Now the road became tire tracks in the grass, meaning Cade and Kate swerved off to ride the smoother side lines every once in awhile while Optimus stuck to the path. So far they'd been following a line of barbed wire fence topped with thin wooden boards, occasionally they'd stop for Kate to check one that was bent down or broken, she'd spray it with bright orange paint if she or Cade couldn't fix it right away.

They continued like that for over an hour. The well worn tire tracks fading the farther they went, and the gentle hills turning rougher. Optimus had to admit it felt nice to test himself on the rough terrain, beside watching his own movements, he tracked the ATV's weaving back and forth on their own paths to maintain control. A lot of the darting around was done by Kate, she'd swerve off the general path to go count the bands of cattle in each pasture, radioing back her results to Tessa and marking them down in the notebook she had tucked in her under seat compartment.

It was early afternoon when they stopped for a break, Cade pulling out food from the packs on the back of his ATV when they parked at a grove of trees for shade.

Optimus welcomed the change, stretching as he transformed and sat nearby while the humans ate in silence.

The land was beautiful, thick grass still covering the hills to feed the cattle before winter, then the pastures would be either emptied and the stock sold, or moved closer to the farm into the two feed lots.

Prime shifted, servo going to rub at his side when his tanks sent a warning ping to his processor that fuel levels were low, it was all too familiar one that at one point he'd never ignore...now it was all too commonplace to turn off that sensor for a few more hours...or weeks...

"You ok Prime?"

He turned to see both of them watching him, Cade with concern and Kate with gentle curiosity.

"I'm fine, fuel warnings."

Cade grimaced, understanding the veiled answer, the bots could never really be "hungry" but being short on fuel was similar enough, at least attitude and if severe enough pain wise.

Kate must have caught on too, her eyes had gone vacant in thought before snapping up to meet Prime's gaze, "Guessing you're not too fond of diesel then huh?"

"No, it does not sit well with my systems. All of us are trying to hack into the databases of the government to retrieve the data out medic used to synthesize energon...but so far we are not successful."

Kate was silent for a moment, "I know a guy who can hack into just about anything, he got a full ride scholarship to MIT after then one he received for the first four years he did to get a double degree in advanced engineering and programming. Tessa's met him when he came to visit his sister, Sarah our roommate, last year at the college we went to. He's a bit of a nut with conspiracy theories and government secrets, I know he'd keep things quiet."

Prime let her words sink in, they desperately needed that data, they were already compromised with low numbers going against Galvatron and his army of the new created and old decepticons, lack of energon was a matter of offlining or not.

But it was a huge risk...

"How do you know his word is honorable to keep our existence...our very safety a secret?"

Kate shrugged, "It's a risk either way, but when it comes down to it, I know he's a good guy and trust him to do this right."

"Are you sure?"

"Let's just say when it comes down to it, he's the real effin' deal."

* * *

><p><strong>Tada! Nice happy lengthy chapter! Thank you my lovely readers and please review...it's literally right there!<br>**


	7. But good things in life

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Seven<br>**

**But good things in life...  
><strong>

Xxx _September__  
><em>

Optimus was kicking himself internally for saying yes. Kate's friend was already enroute, having agreed to come the minute she said he'd be hacking into a government database. That didn't ease the worry making it hard for Optimus to settle down for the night...

Plus the parasite...a burning tingling had started near his alternator as the thing wove itself even further into his systems, the tendrils of protoform stretching and weaving into any available gaps, it's own neural wiring digging into Prime's and creating an unbreakable binding that connected them. The more it grew, the weaker Prime became.

Hound wasn't able to give a decent diagnostic, but common sense was enough, currently the parasite was pulling power from Prime via his tanks and secondary energon lines. He'd start to lose strength and motor functions once it latched onto his main lines. It would cripple and then offline him once it reached his spark.

Prime had a feeling the more it wove into his neural network and sensory systems that he'd lose his mind first...

Being able to access energon would slow the process, it wouldn't grow searching for more fuel if it was handy...that wouldn't stop it though...

Drift was the only other one awake, well that and Trey out in his Jeep. Coyotes had been howling the last few nights, and no one wanted them coming closer to the house than their natural trails led them, new pups each year meant someone out with a gun watching the near pastures to keep the youngest pens of livestock safe.

The samurai bot bowed slightly from where he was perched in a tall oak tree, the organic plant was pretty damn big to hold the over two and a half ton mech in it's branches.

That and Drift knew how to balance on some pretty weird places without leaving a mark. Few other bots could accomplish such feats...

Optimus nodded to him, scanning the fields that lined the driveway, knowing in just over twelve hours, a car would roll up the gravel road with someone who would essentially decide their fate.

"Winds bring change, both new and old...yet their breeze does not bring you peace this night Sensei."

It had taken Prime ten orns after he'd been promoted from a data clerk to fully understand Jazz's smooth talking language, it had taken him longer to fully adjust to Bumblebee using sound bytes and music to speak after Tyger Pax...and with Drift...

He was lucky if he caught the meaning behind the mech's words on a good day.

"No...no peace tonight Drift, nor will peace be easily forthcoming for some time."

A low hum, and Drift dropped from the tree to stand beside his leader, gesturing for them to walk as to not wake the others parked nearby in recharge. They trekked down the driveway, letting their footsteps break the silence instead of speaking.

:While I understand your hesitation for this "hacker" to come to our aid, I do not see the point in continuing your behavior towards the humans.:

:Excuse me?:

Drift narrowed his optics a notch, servos clasped behind his back loosely as he continued walking, not giving Optimus the satisfaction of stopping and facing him.

:While you trust Cade Yeager with the secrets that are the reasons behind our dilemma-:

:You call an almost fatal fuel shortage a dilemma?!:

This time Drift growled, optics narrowed to thin slits, and Prime reminded himself that he'd been hard pressed to earn this mech's allegiance, trust was another thing coming.

:Dilemma, yes, he knows little, his youngling less than him, and the others even less than the one before. I accept that Joyce does not and should not know some of this, his presence does not make things easy. Yet I do not see why you have hidden things from young Katherine, she has done nothing since we arrived over a stellar cycle ago other than try to aid us in any manner she has available, you must know the best the cost of fueling a team...Kate pays this readily and with no complaint...yet we all know this strains her...:

He let Optimus mull that over, stopping their walk to turn and face his leader at last.

:You look at the humans and see the men of Cemetery Winds, some of them the very soldiers who had sworn their loyalty to NEST and had fought beside you for years. I am grieved to see this Sensei, these humans here have done no wrong to us or any others, they only wish to help. But I fear you have closed yourself off from even feeling anything other than sorrow and rage...two such traits that should not cloud a spark with their pain.:

Optimus turned away, unmoving yet inside he was trembling, his fists clenched without him consciously thinking it. Drift continued, stepping back as Optimus looked to him again, allowing space but not backing down.

:You do not trust these humans, you have no obligation to do so, but if you allow others' past actions to be the judgement you place upon those who only offer peace, then maybe you should reconsider your standings with those of Earth.:

Drift looked away for a moment, :I do not ask you to forget those that have wronged us, nor do I ask you to forget what has had transpired before and after Chicago Sensei, I do ask you to think and discover for yourself what you want to do, if it means closing off from those who wish to aid you then that is your choice, but if it means opening your spark enough to risk what you have been fearing...what we all fear constantly...then you know where to find us.:

The silence between them was thicker than the ache building in Prime's spark, head bowed and shoulders slumped in defeat as Drift drew out one of his Katanas, twirling it absently in thought.

:I cannot order you Sensei, but I ask that you consider this...:

Drift suddenly speaking made him flinch slightly, optics locking onto the mech before him.

"A dead cherry tree does not blossom and a fallen blossom never returns to the branch." He turned to walk away, pedes making little sound on the gravel.

"How far will you fall Prime, before anyone knows to reach for you?"

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><p><strong>Ok this one bummed me out, but it was begging to be written, just an FYI, Drift is NOT that easy to write, especially when trying to keep to his formal character...<br>**

**G'nite one and all and happy reading!**

**Review please?**


	8. Are hard to find

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**To _Shadow Kat_: I wouldn't say 'empire' but definitely all his awesomeness...Thank you!**

**Warning: Swearing...**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eight<br>**

**Are hard to find  
><strong>

Xxx _September__  
><em>

Weekends were the quietest on the farm, Kate's friend would be arriving late afternoon, and with Cheryl off the night before, Cade had volunteered to do morning chores. Optimus wasn't even aware he was up that morning, the inventor had fed the horses early and checked the pumps on the water tanks in the cattle feed lot before he even came close to the lower barn. By that point Optimus had woken up enough to notice when Cade came to milk the only dairy cow on the farm, a cute little thing that Cheryl spoiled rotten.

Cade must have done this before because he was basically half asleep and on autopilot, taking the fresh milk and filling buckets on a fence for the handful of orphaned calves Kate and Tessa were raising, before he even realizing Prime was watching him. He gave Optimus a wave as he headed back to the house on the golf cart loaded with the small milker and calf bottles to clean for evening chores.

Prime followed, settling near the house against the oak tree Hound was fond of leaning on to nap during the day. He had meant to stay awake and monitor the driveway and gate since the humans were asleep, the gate phone was wireless and the Bots frequently hacked into the system to take the pressure of the humans at night for making sure no one got in that wasn't supposed to. Instead recharge slipped up on him, his optics shuttering and systems slowing back into blissful black...

xxx

"_**SONUVA BITCH****!**_"

Optimus jerked awake, weapons coming online faster than his processor, only the other bots running closer to him and the house kept him from firing off a shot at the first thing that moved.

Joshua's voice stopped Cheryl's rather impressive swearing streak, "Cheryl! What the hell?!"

"We've got no water dammit!"

Cade groaned, sounding like he'd just woken up through the open windows as an equally bleary Tessa and Kate came up from their downstairs bedroom to find out why there was shouting on their day off.

The Bots listened in as the humans moved to each room with a faucet, testing everything and checking the fuse box and water heater, by the time Cade was pulling work boots on to head out to the barns, Tony came roaring up into the yard with his truck, barely putting it in park before jumping out.

"Boss! You're not gonna like this!"

Cheryl growled as she came out on the porch, dressed in nothing but shorts, a baggy t-shirt, and holding an empty coffee mug.

"What."

Optimus would have flinched at that kind of tone coming from Ratchet, even coming from Cheryl it made him uneasy.

Didn't bother Tony, he just crossed his arms and waited until Cheryl dropped her arm with the mug that had been poised to chuck at someone.

"The well's out, none of the hydrants are pumpin' any water and the pipes are all emptied, something's killed the pressure."

That didn't help, Cheryl closed her eyes and went back in the house, banging and slamming doors as she head to the basement and her storage room.

Cade sighed as he exited the house with Kate, both in pajamas and boots. Tony shook his head, climbing back in his truck as Cade took the passenger seat and Kate jumped into the bed, bracing herself on the head light rack over the cab as the Ford roared to life and headed to the well house.

Prime followed out of sheer curiosity, and because everyone else was scattering to avoid Cheryl's temper while she began to set things up to deal with no running water.

xxx

"Pump's shot, the pressure tank and everything's fine, but the pump down in the pipes is dead..."

Tony's voice floated up from the small cistern in the ground, he and Cade has unlocked the heavy cement cover over the well, Prime moving the led with ease as Kate fetched a ladder to let her and Tony climb down to check out the plumbing.

Cade groaned, steadying the ladder as Kate climbed out, Tony following a minute later after he checked to ensure nothing else was damaged.

Kate sighed as she lifted the ladder out, nodding her thanks to Optimus when he replaced the lid for them. "I'll head into town and get more drinking water, and call the the plumber to come out and replace the pump, I just hope it's a shallow one and we don't have to get a rig out here."

A low snort slipped from Tony as he slammed the lock home to keep people out of the cistern, "And what's that gonna cost ya K? You gotta be pushin' things, auction's not for another month, and the Rosewood Invitational doesn't pay out right away."

That earned an annoyed growl before Kate collapsed the ladder with a heavy sigh, tossing it into the back of the truck, earning a wince from Tony.

"Too damn much, don't have a choice, can't go without water..."

Prime rocked back to crouch on his heels, watching silently as Cade tried to help figure things out, the three of them even resorting to writing out the math on the side of the pale blue-green truck in marker, Tony assuring the, he really didn't care and would clean it off later. Cade then reminded him he'd gone and handed them a permanent marker. That earned a rather amusing groan as Tony slammed his head against his door.

Anyway they worked it, the cost to get the well up and running was too damn high, especially since it was on old pump to begin with...

"This isn't gonna work...either way we do it...can't afford to fix the well and pay the rest of the bills..."

"Then cut the fuel bill."

The three of them turned to face Optimus, Kate's eyes narrowed while Cade's were wide in shock, Tony was glancing between Prime and Kate, looking nervous.

"I won't."

"You must."

"I _won't_."

"You _have_ to...you cannot go without water, it will not harm us-"

"Yes it will!"

"How do you know that?!"

Kate clammed up fast that, glaring angrily before turning her back on Prime, the mech growled, slamming his fist into the ground in frustration as Kate continued to ignore him, moving to the other side of the truck to pick up the tools laying there. Tony followed, helping while Cade walked off a bit in his own frustration.

"...ate if he says to do it...then maybe..."

"..._can't_...not again..."

"It's not your choice...maybe this time nothing..."

'...I won't lose someone again..."

Their muffled conversation as they banged tools did nothing to help ease Prime's processor, he wasn't liking this...

xxx

Kate was right, she'd called a plumber to arrange for the guy to come out tomorrow and fix the well, it was going to be almost double the fuel bill for the month. She wouldn't leave the house to let Prime try and stop her again, ignoring him whenever he tried to talk her out of it as she helped haul water from tanks in empty pens to the ones with livestock waiting.

Prime was only growing more irritated with her, first with whatever suspicions that were growing from her and Tony, and now with her increasing stubbornness, he almost didn't notice Joshua coming to stand next to him as he watched Kate and Tessa dump the buckets of water from Tony's truck bed.

"Think she'd notice if I slipped about fifteen thousand in her bank account tonight?"

Optimus cursed internally for the noticeable flinch when the man spoke, glad Joshua didn't comment as he met Prime's gaze.

"She would notice almost as soon as you did."

"Eh, worth a shot to surprise her..."

Prime frowned, optics narrowing, "Why?"

Joshua shrugged, hands in his pockets as he watched Kate cuss when a couple steers slammed into the side of the truck, making it rock and spilling half the buckets. "That girl has been through a war in her life, and she's still fighting it. The fact that she'd rather go without running water instead of you guys going with empty tanks...says a helluva lot about her...figured since she was willing to work with me and your bots, might as well help her out with this."

Optimus merely nodded, turning back to watch Kate and Tessa finish emptying their buckets before sitting on the sides of the truck as Tony drove off to refill them. They were back in ten minutes, moving one pen closer to top off the last of the water tanks for now.

"And speaking of help..."

Prime wasn't paying attention as the sound of a car came up behind him, the door shutting with a click and the house front door slammed shut with Cade running out to them.

"Yo Boss Bot! What the hell is this? What...five years ya ignore me and then call me up and beg for my assistance? W. T. F. man!"

Optimus turned fast, finding the once slightly scrawny and really obnoxious teenager that had been absolutely terrified in Egypt...had matured into a slightly less obnoxious, confident young man who met his gaze with a rather wide grin.

Cade stepped forward, glaring at the newcomer as Bumblebee ran up to them, so excited his radio had shorted out and he was left to beeping. "Who are you?"

The man smirked, hands on his hips casually, "Leonardo Ponce de Leon Spitz, friends call me Leo-"

"And ya forgot to let me outta da trunk ya aft-hole!"

Leo rolled his eyes as he turned to face the robot climbing out of his car window, "Wheelie shut the fuck up or I will punt your ass from here to kingdom come."

Optimus couldn't bit back the small grin on his lip plates, if he'd none Kate's hacker friend was the old roommate of...well he might have relaxed a bit more.

Kate came running up, slamming into Leo with a hug and a squeal as he spun her around laughing.

"Oh so she gets a decent greetin'...and me...locked in the trunk."

"Wheelie."

"Yeah Kate?"

"Shut up."

* * *

><p><strong>Tada!<strong>


	9. Can we make this something good?

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**To _Sari Prime_: Thank you for the follow! And to _wolflover72335_ thank you for the fave and follow!  
><strong>

**Warning: Swearing...aka Leo and Wheelie being themselves**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Nine<br>**

**Can We Make This Something Good?  
><strong>

Xxx _September__  
><em>

After introductions to the Bots Leo hadn't met yet, Kate and Cade helped him unload his equipment from his car, setting him up in the home office no one ever used. With a little luck with extension cords and power strips, they were able to hook up four monitors plus two towers that connected and shared data and processing strength. That wasn't counting the custom laptop Leo began hooking up dead center on the desk, and that Wheelie transformed into a high tech laptop himself to connect everything.

Kate provided custom external hard drives that Leo's sister, Sarah had designed and programmed, it would automatically defrag any incoming data and programs, just in case government techs had gone through and laced any of the files. Leo's main job was getting past the extensive firewalls and heavy encryption codes blocking the Autobots out of the database.

He was pretty confident that he'd get it cracked in less than a day, as long as Kate's wireless internet didn't burn out with the proxy servers the hacker would be using to hide his work.

Cade leaned against the table behind the "zone" as Leo had dubbed the massive antique desk he'd claimed to work, watching the hacker slide back and forth in the rolling office chair as he fingers flew across three separate keyboards, inputting programming and command codes to begin setting up his access points. A headset hung around his neck that would soon be blocking him from the rest of the world, Wheelie was currently making sure the bots' comm links could be matched to the headset to keep Leo in constant conversation with them to know exactly what they'd done when attempting to access the database, mainly to know what not to try and touch virtually to avoid and government tech placed triggers.

Kate was currently fixing supper for everyone and monitoring Wheelie, listening to only her side of the conversation as she yelled out the kitchen windows was rather amusing, especially with Joshua's occasional commentary from the living room. The majority of the shouting was reprimanding Wheelie's language and blatant refusal to be nice to Shane, at least until Prime ordered him to knock it off.

"Ok...downloading the NSA's top level encryption network, should take only half an hour since they switched over to the twenty-two second code changer, that will let me start pulling off the bitches placed V-net over top of the database on top of the original security system, gonna have to keep Wheelie off this so he doesn't end up cutting any hairs-"

"Hairs?"

Leo spun around in the chair, whipping like a dummy in car crash test like he just realized he wasn't alone and had been talking to himself.

"Oh sorry, hairline triggers, like cops use for surveillance or a hunter for a trap, a thin line of coding meant to alert the placer that someone's not where they're supposed to be. Only a couple bits in size, even smaller than point five of a microbyte...almost impossible to find unless you have the master key, and since it's designed to hit on cybertronian V-presence...the Bots were slagged from the beginning."

Cade nodded even though half of the jargon went over his head.

Leo stood with a sigh, locking all of his keyboards to keep from accidental system failure with a miss-key. Heading out to go control the mini-bot currently wreaking havoc in the front yard, he nodded to Cade when the man followed.

"Yo Wheelie! What part of 'I will punt your aft' did you not understand? Hell I bet Bee would even do it for me!"

".._.hey man...leave me...outta this_!"

"Who's side are ya on 'Bee? Bots for Bots!" Wheelie was standing on Bumblebee's shoulder, the scout rolling his optics before flicking the minibot off.

"..._uh...no_..."

Leo smirked, holding out a fist and bumping with the Camaro as Wheelie swore up a blue streak as he rolled back to them from across the yard. Cade sat on the front steps, watching the younger man fully ignore everything else around him as he talked with the Autobot scout, Bee's radio hushed but rapidly changing channels to find words.

Optimus shifted from where he was leaning against the hillside, following Cade's grin with a soft sigh.

"Bee seems pretty happy."

"Yes...Leo Spitz was one of NEST's 'accidental' agents, working outside of main operations as an insider to online information leaks and other hackers as well as..."

Prime's voice trailed off, the almost grieved tone that had taken over keeping Cade from asking, just watching how Bumblebee lit up while talking to Leo, the familiarity between them so different then how the scout acted around Cade or even Tessa.

One main thing was Leo was almost always in some way in physical contact with Bee, whether leaning on his leg, a hand on his armor, or when Bee had first greeted him, leaning his head down and Leo had gripped the circular mouthpiece, eyes never leaving the bright blue optics until Bee pulled away first.

So vastly different...a human and an Autobot, yet for those two...it didn't matter.

xxx

Optimus stood with Crosshairs and Bee in Leo's 'cave' as Tessa had called it after the hacker had locked himself in all night. He'd made enough progress that he'd ventured out for food, and coffee after Kate refused to let him have any energy drinks, at that point Optimus had asked to see what he'd done...more like demanded but Leo wasn't going to argue with the Prime.

"So I was able to slip under the V-Net CW put over the database to trace you guys virtually, they had a spaghetti code on it and I'm still watching to make sure I don't end up dumping a bit bucket and cascade the system."

Arms crossed and holoform's face grim, anyone who didn't know Prime's 'thinking face' would think he was pissed at the news, while he was still frustrated, it was only because of just how much danger they were in with doing this.

"How do you know you haven't been found out mate? They started placing flags and triggers after just one of us had gone in."

Leo nodded to Crosshairs, pulling up a screen that resembled a map covered in red dots, "At that point you guys should have stopped, they've got a shit ton of pockets marked and waiting for a flip. I'm setting up a Trojan horse to bypass the triggers over the main back doors, going to send anything that I flip on a loop-hole chase, making it look like a total fluke off some voodoo program. Hoping to munge the secondary back..well windows, Hatchet didn't leave them big enough for a full break...see if I can daisy-chain through a backup minor program to go back forwards to data storage."

"Are you able to access the network?"

The hacker smirked, leaning back casually as he clicked on a side window, pulling up a program page that none of the Bots had seen in almost four years.

Plain white screen with the iconic bull head NEST emblem, the soldiers had thought of it as a clever joke, keeping it for the computer techs' sake as the nerds had issues with changes. The official seal had been changed to a red and black shield with the autobot emblem a few months later. The log in screen was up and waiting, three familiar and simple entry boxes, username, ID number, and password. All normal and ready to go...except the loading bar on the bottom.

"The network is tucked behind the V-net and back up security systems several of us put in place after Hanson from IT called saying to wipe everything and get underground. I think it had been a week and half since Chicago when we put it in place. One of the guys got caught a year later, I have no idea who the other one was so not a clue on their whereabouts. We wedged it to keep anyone and everyone out. Once I'm in through the secondary back doors, I can access the data storage and pull of the safety files put in place should the NEST have ever gone through a cascade failure and a full reboot was needed. Then I"ll simply log in and get any and all info you guys need."

Crosshairs snorted, "Why can't you just pull the files once you're in the first time?"

"Cuz' Hatchet had a bad habit of firewalling anything he had behind medical storage, it's a whole other network within the main one, if I tried accessing them without logging in, I'd risk my decrypting software fragging all my work, last thing we need is for something to kluge and then shut down my connections because of the fail-safes on the network already. I have to find those and turn them off and replace them with my own to erase my presence and what's going on. When we put the network in lock down, we basically made it so once someone logged in, the network forgot that someone was there, the farther I go in as a hacker, the more risk I have of the network waking up and kicking me out."

Bee's holoform coughed, voice cracking and strained but there wasn't anything he could do about, "How...d-do you know...no one's...gotten in an-and changed things?"

"The lock down, it's just past the log in programming, underneath all original security on top, the extra layers we added, and the V-net Cemetery Winds put on it. The protocols will act like an EM shield, with the safety files I pull it will open enough for me to get in and maintain a data retrieval connection out, but it will close off anything else."

With everyone satisfied for the time being, Bee and Crosshairs left to let Leo get back to work, he was already pulling up the next part of his work, settling in for the next junk of this Hacking Run when Optimus laid a hand on his shoulder.

Without turning Leo, smiled, fingers flying once more, "What's up Boss Bot?"

He didn't comment when he felt Prime tense at that, glad Optimus couldn't see his brows furrow briefly.

"Once you have pulled the energon files, I need to you to scramble and dump the entire network."

"Sure can d-wait what?"

Optimus didn't blink as Leo pulled back and turned around, confusion etched on his face like he'd just been kissed and slapped at the same time.

"We..._I_ cannot risk anyone getting a hold of this information, if the other person who initiated the lock down can access it, then it's possible someone else learned from them, putting the data at risk. It cannot get out, even to former NEST members testing the government security for the 'fun' of it."

"But Boss-"

"Mr. Spitz you will do as I ask."

"Prime this is totally not cool, this stuff is locked tight, I wrote most of the protocols of the lock down and even I'm going to have a helluva time getting back in."

Optimus growled softly, making Leo look away for a second before sighing. "Yeah..."

"Leo..."

"I said yeah, I'll dump it...it'll be taken care of."

"Thank you, don't tell the other autobots about this."

Another sigh as Leo turned back to work.

"Mr. Spitz..."

"Yes sir."

Prime left him at that, and Leo stayed staring at his screens until he heard the front door shut and the deep rumble of the diesel engine starting up and pulling away from the house.

"SHIT!"

Shoving back from the desk he tossed the head set across the room, wincing at the loud crack it made as it hit the wall.

Kate appeared in the doorway, leaning on one side with her arms crossed, just watching him.

"You heard?"

"Yeah, wall's thin between this room and mom's."

"What should I do?"

"Listen to him."

Leo groaned, rubbing at his face as he leaned back in the chair, "No...what am I going to do?"

"Listen to him...dump the system...but I've got a bone to pick with Crosshairs about wifi usage so the house phone is open if you need it."

It took her less than a minute to leave the house, another fifteen seconds for Leo to grab the cordless phone in Cheryl's room and lock himself in the office. The phone rang twice before the other end answered.

"Don't talk, just listen, I'm in a huge HR right now to pull files and just got orders to S&D the entire thing, need help. At my sister's place, on the third ISP base, and yes I'm calling you for this cuz I'm outta time and have no options."

He glanced to his laptop, seeing the chat box pop up within seconds, already to go.

"Let's do this."

* * *

><p><strong>Tada!<strong>


	10. Taken all I could take

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**To _Shadow fang the black wolf, and 3PrincessesofAsgard_: Thank you for the follow!  
><strong>

**To _Shadow Kat_: Wait and see! Thank you!**

**Warning: Swearing...aka Leo and Wheelie being themselves**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Ten<br>**

**Taken all I could take  
><strong>

Xxx _September__  
><em>

Optimus slept horribly that night, waking even more exhausted, and feeling sick to his tanks. Drift was nowhere to be found when he finally convinced his legs to support him when he tried to stand, and judging by Leo's car also gone, the two had taken the rental back to a dealer, another way the hacker had stayed off the grid, using cash and rentals to remain out of the DMV records.

Hound was out with Trey and Tony in the far pastures, the radio on Cade's hip was going non stop as he changed Bumblebee's oil outside his workshop, waving to Optimus when the mech crouched near them, mostly because he was likely to fall if he didn't.

"Leo gave Crosshairs a loaded hard drive, he's sorting through it right now to get a basic design running, then Joshua and I are going to get it going. He also made a copy that Cheryl's got locked in a case in her gun cabinet, just in case."

Prime nodded, servo going to his helm when pain flared.

"Aw c'mon I didn't mean it...don't you dare-_**FRAG!**_"

Both of them looked up at Wheelie's shout, watching as he bounced across the road from where he was supposed to be acting as Kate's note taker while she and Tessa weighed a pen of steers for a private buyer. Apparently he'd pissed Kate off enough she followed through on Leo's threats.

Brains was laughing like a maniac, barely hanging on to the bars of the chute where he was out of Kate's reach unless she really wanted to get him.

Tessa chased after the now toy Tonka truck, laughing as he spun out and flipped before shooting under Bee to hide.

"Told ya she wasn't in the mood for jokes."

"Yeah well...she oughta treat me with more respect!"

Cade snickered at the muffled complaints, patting Bee's side panel when the camaro shook with laughter, replacing the cap back on the oil reservoir and closing Bee's hood.

"I think you have to earn it first."

Muffle grumblings preceded a yelp as Tessa had crawled underneath Bee, swatting at Wheelie to get him to move.

The truck darted forwards, almost spinning his tiny tires out on the gravel until a massive hand picked him up instead, the palm turning over as he transformed.

"What the...oh, mornin' Boss."

Prime's optics narrowed marginally, "I'm assuming you volunteered to aid the girls in their work, or were asked and agreed?"

"Yes sir..."

"Then I suggest you finish your task, without aggravating them further."

"...alright..."

Wheelie waited until Optimus lowered his servo enough so his jumping wouldn't damage anything, transforming in midair to roll and follow Tessa back to the scales and chute.

"Why do I get the feeling that's an all too common conversation with that one?"

Before Prime could reply, Bee's radio blasted a laugh track as he shook violently, transforming and falling to one side as his voice synthesizer whined and cracked.

"..._way too...familiar...he's a baaad kitty...yep, yep, yep...he is_!"

Cade smirked at the broken speech, glad to see Bumblebee laughing and enjoying himself. It wasn't something very common among the Bots.

Optimus let the scout act like a child, a small grin on his face plates when Bee finally composed himself and stood up, doorwings still shaking as Prime rested a servo on his shoulder, squeezing gently.

Bumblebee did the same, optics bright and warm as the light blue met deep sapphire. Optimus let him go a moment later, nodding as the scout just about bounced away to go see exactly what the girls were doing since the clanging of gates had switched to short squeals and laughing.

"Never ceases to amaze me how human you guys can seem...or well how 'alien' we may act..."

A low hum slid from the large mech while Cade picked up his tools, actually remembering to put them away instead of leaving them scattered around, one too many times of having to unwedge a wrench from between armor panels and metal joints while Hound was mid-transformation was one time too many. Prime had simply shaken his head in exasperation upon hearing about that.

Cade leaned against the workshop door, watching Prime stare out over the horse pen, Ferric chasing Scope and a striped dun named Hornet and making quite the racket.

"It used to amaze me how similar and yet so different Earth was to Cybertron, how beautiful it used to seem..."

Looking back, the tone of Prime's voice both awed and scared Cade at that moment, and he probably should have kept the conversation going longer than he did, but just how Prime spoke...he couldn't continue.

"And now...?"

"I question whether it was right to continue our defense of this planet."

xxx

xx

xxx

His internal chronometer read 3:17am when he woke from recharge, a soft groan sliding from him as he rocked on his axles a little, shifting old joints that seized up once in awhile. The other bots were still deep in recharge, even Prime, who from what Cade had said, hadn't had a good day, acting like he was in pain for quite some time.

Cheryl was out on her shift, and wouldn't be back until late morning, she was hoping to get her cruiser back.

Hound was just slipping back into recharge when two sets of tires rolled back up the driveway and parked near the house, his processor was fuzzy with sleep, he figured it was Trey and Tony coming back from a rare night out...

Then he remembered he was sitting right next to Tony's truck...

xxx

Prime jerked awake with a shout, transforming amidst total chaos. Three government SUV's were in the driveway, agents fighting the humans in the house, another set were aiming guns at the bots...

...

Cade could barely see, barely breathe...someone had come into his bedroom, he'd hazily sat up, and gotten a knock to the back of the head. At some point when two guys were dragging him out of the house, he'd tried to wrench free, earning a pretty hard punch to his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.

Kate and Tessa were just as panicked, Tessa sobbing as they loaded her in the back of and SUV, sticking Joshua and Shane in the same vehicle with agents filling the rest of the seats. Wheelie had called Cheryl the second the gate had been blown open, literally...they'd used a bomb...

Leo was already handcuffed and in a vehicle, Brains and Wheelie in a dog kennel, both suffering from damage brought on by kicks from the men.

Two mustang cruisers came roaring up the drive, lights and sirens blaring and adding to the noise in the yard. Cade could hear the Bots yelling and fighting back, trying not to shoot to avoid accidents.

Cheryl marched up to the only man in a suit not holding on to another person, "You sonuva bitch! Get the-"

Prime came running when Cheryl screamed and went down, the punch hitting her square in the eye. Immediately, one of the men who'd gone to restrain the cop pointed his gun at the mech, only making things worse when Prime pulled his own gun.

David, the other cop, pulled his own gun, pointing it at Prime's assailant.

"What the hell is going on here, gotta have a warrant gentlemen to make arrests."

"We don't need one Officer Anderson, the terms of the contracts were finite, and Katherine here broke them."

Kate growled, struggling harder and crying out when a hand gripped her hair. It was taking two guys to keep her contained and even then they were struggling.

"What...Kate?"

She glanced to Prime before looking to Cade, "I didn't break the terms, the rule was only a few on site at a time, it's been the same for over a year."

"And then Prime arrived...and you didn't bother to inform us."

"You didn't need to know!"

"Oh yes we did...and now...the project is being revoked, you will all be escorted to the base where Kate here will call back the rest of her team."

Prime growled, optics flicking to Cade as he questioned her, "...rest of your team...Kate what the hell is going on!?"

Tony answered by running up with a gun aimed and ready, the man in the suit fired off a shot instead, hitting him dead center, only Tony didn't drop to the ground.

He vanished.

"That's what is going on Mr. Yeager, Miss Katherine here hasn't just been providing sanctuary for the seven Autobots you were aware of, there's been two others here the whole time...Trey and Tony? Completely fake...the contract was to the letter, no others. And now you all suffer the consequences."

Prime roared out in anger, ready to blast both the man and Kate in a single shot, only stopping when a bullet managed to get under his armor, hitting something that started smoking. He growled, one servo pressing against his armor to stop the pain, grimacing as Kate was shoved onto her knees and handcuffed.

"I never should have trusted humans..."

Kate barked out a laugh, ending in a choking cough when one of the men punched her, sending her toppling to the side, "Is that so Prime?"

Optimus nearly stepped closer, stopping when a few more guns were aimed on him, glancing around he saw the other bots had already transformed for transport, none willing to fight, and that point neither was he, dropping his gun he bit out the burning thought in his processor. "You lied"

Struggling to get back on her knees, Kate glared, "So did you."

* * *

><p><strong>Dun Dun Duuuunn!<strong>

**Thank you so much my lovely readers!  
><strong>


	11. And I cannot wait

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**To _DEVINE.L _and _Ollie Marie_: Thank you for the fave, and follow!  
><strong>

**Warning: Swearing  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eleven<br>**

**And I cannot wait  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

Why in the world the agents had put a handcuffed Kate next to a handcuffed Cade in the SUV was beyond the inventor's comprehension. He'd settled for glaring out the window, at the back of the driver's and passenger's head, and glancing at the young woman with anger. Kate was the exact opposite, slumped sideways in her seat and leaning against the window sound asleep. Or at least as asleep as you could get with your hands cuffed behind your back and being stuck in a car for several hours.

Her left eye was beginning to bruise, a small cut on her cheek and nose scabbing over after leaving a line down her face like a tear trail. Bruising on her upper arms was dark against her lightly tan skin, she'd been in only a tank top and shorts when the men had dragged her from bed. At least Cade had long sleep pants on to keep his legs covered and protected. Kate's were scraped and bruised from being dragged to the car, she'd fought them until they'd put a gun on her mom since she didn't seem to care about the one at her own temple.

The Bots were following in a line behind this SUV, another was behind and the one Tessa was in was alongside them to make sure they didn't try anything. They were heading to a base somewhere South of the farm, taking back roads so Cade had no idea where they were.

While it had only been about six hours since they'd left, it felt longer, probably because exhaustion didn't help troubled minds, and the cars were definitely over the speed limit. Go government vehicles!

Kate shifted as the car bumped onto a gravel parking lot, the agents finally pulling over at a pretty empty truck stop. Luckily the Bots didn't decide now was the time to rebel as the cars parked. An agent sitting behind them reached around and unlocked the cuffs on Cade before shaking Kate's shoulder, holding it as she leaned forward for him to let her loose. The driver of each SUV and a couple other agents switched out with another vehicle waiting for them, these agents weren't as strict, even unlocking the still swearing Cheryl who had by now switched to German.

Cade regretted taking that class with her in High school, she'd probably already hit a couple other languages, she'd had way too much time in study hall to "research" and the language instructor had stupidly loaned her a variety of dictionaries. One agent helped Kate down from her seat, handing her a twenty dollar bill and offering the same to Cade, he took it once he saw another agent doing the same to everyone in the other SUV besides David and Cheryl who still had their wallets on them.

"Kate-"

"Yeah I know the drill, money for food, ten minutes to get in and get out, no stupid or obnoxious toys that can fly out windows or leave dents in heads."

The agent sighed heavily, rolling his eyes but nodding and handing her a pair of flip flops, rather nice ones too judging by the leather ones Cade was handed.

The truck stop men's bathroom was out of order, but they all agreed to just pile in the women's as there weren't any clothes to change anyway, and the only other person at the truck stop was the clerk. Kate immediately went to the mirror and began scrubbing her face clean, not worrying about the scratches on her legs that her mom was staring at as she straightened her work pony tail.

Cade had had it, "You mind telling me what's going on?"

Cheryl hissed at him to be quiet, taking off her boots and walking to the swinging door, she waited a second before ramming her hip into it, hitting the agent on the other side. "Creep!"

The booted feet walked away.

"Sorry, they've got a couple new guys in this set. Harrison, the asshole who pulled a gun on me first and told the 'dirty little secret', is our government liason, between him and a couple others they assigned Tony and Trey to us permanently, though their using fake names...anyway the agreement was safe harboring and no Fed involvement as long as no other Bots came to the farm. We kinda fudged on the last report and something must have slipped out once Prime got here so they came a knockin'"

Shane scoffed, "Then why they ask how many? Heard Harrison say limit of ten."

"Cuz that's the number of bots allowed on the farm at one time, and I don't know why they think we went over that...there were nine."

"No there wasn't..."

Cade turned to his daughter, her face tear stained and tired looking, huddled into an extra large hoodie, it was his Cade noted with smug satisfaction.

Tessa leaned against the wall, eyes halfway starting into nothing, "Kate's classic car, the Fair lane that's in the garage with the cover...saw the emblem two months ago."

Kate winced, more from Tessa than her mom scrubbing dirt off her thigh, "Knew that cover wasn't on right..."

"That makes ten." For once Cade didn't want to tell Shane to shut up.

This time David spoke, sighing as he glanced around to make sure everyone was just about ready, "The blue ATV."

"Dude...talk about riding-"

"Leo!"

xxx

The day was turning out how to be a bad one, but Cade had to give Kate and Cheryl credit, David used his twenty to get both girls a pair of sweatpants and Cheryl a shirt other than her officers uniform, she promptly changed and and set her work blouse (without the badge on it) on fire with a lighter she had in her pocket. The agents weren't pleased when they saw it burning on the gravel outside the store.

Between Cheryl and Kate and Leo, they managed to get enough food for six people, Tessa joining in on it when Cheryl went ahead and bought a donut and a coffee for each agent, the calmer the agents were, the less likely they would harm the bots, especially with Harrison's standing order that each Bot was accompanied by an agent. Crosshairs' passenger was still cussing and had a black eye. While Cheryl and David went to deliver the 'gifts' Kate grabbed a couple packages of M&M's, glancing to Tessa to make sure she wasn't going to tell her mom, that earned a laugh.

This time getting in the SUV was easier, it was daylight, he wasn't handcuffed, and the guys now were nicer, talking amongst themselves and Kate, almost joking around as they started moving again.

"Ok, somebody start it..."

Cade was lost, just ate his breakfast of junk food and an extra large coffee as the agents one by one started snickering. Kate was content to eat her food, until Cade realized she did so while eyeing the back of the driver's head with a bit of a sadistic smirk.

"Bitch."

"Dammit!"

Three of the five agents laughed, the passenger cussing as he handed over a five to the driver, "...forty-nine seconds..."

"Dude, you knew it wasn't going to last..." The driver's voice was muffled with donut in his mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Kate snarked, ruining her reprimand when the driver glanced at her in the rearview and she stuck her tongue out.

"And so it begins..."

xxx

Cade relaxed marginally as time wore on, another three hours in the car did that, mainly because Kate and these agents knew each other and were more than willing to take full advantage of it. So far they'd argued over movies, tv shows, logic, and currently had someone's iPod playing remix videos of youtube. Their conversations also led Cade to learn the reason why they were traveling so damn far.

Kate was had an official legal military order stuck on her, she was physically banned from the military base closest to the farm that could hide the Bots during proceedings.

Cade was beginning to see why...

When the SUV's parked, Kate hopped right out, waving to a guard standing nearby watching as everyone filed out and the Bots were allowed to transform. None looked too happy. They all were told to stay at the hangar entrance, half of the hangar was up on scaffolding over parking spaces, the upper 'deck' held computers, desks, a conference table, and numerous cameras and screens for vid-chats. Soldiers and technicians were bustling about like crazy.

Harrison was waiting for them, saying he'd let the 'officials' know they had arrived and to wait 'right here' until called on. He left with Cheryl flipping him off behind his back.

Leo turned to Kate, all joking aside, "There's other hackers here, lemme go see if I can find out what they know and whose here, make sure they haven't already sent calling cards out."

When she nodded, he jogged to the nearest techie, speaking quickly as he leaned on a table.

And sent it toppling over, spilling stacks of files all over the place, some skidding for several feet.

Right to the feet of the Secretary of Defense, who didn't look happy.

Kate sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of her nose as she crossed her arms.

"And that ladies and gentlemen is why we can't have nice things."

* * *

><p><strong>Part One of the Explanations chapter(s) was going to have this longer and then my computer decided to be stupid.<br>**

**Thanks for reading! Review please!**


	12. We're wasting too much time

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**Warning: Swearing  
><strong>

**Disclaimer Numero Dos: ****I give full credit to the amazing _Tatyana Wit_****_wicky_ for the following chapter, In her fic****s**** Guidelines for living with Robots Rule #48,**** and**** Guidelines for living with robots Part 2 Rule #6, ****there is the inspiration for this chapter and its stupid****ity, please go read her fics as they are am****azing and hilarious!****  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twelve<br>**

**We're wasting too much time  
><strong>

Xxx _Six Months after Egypt, Spring Break__  
><em>

Diego Garcia was usually a pretty active base, especially a couple days after a raid on Decepticons. But considering this time is was in Brazil, in the Amazon jungle, with a river in the immediate vicinity of the battlefield...

No one was in a very good mood. Of the twelve Autobots on base, since Bee had brought Sam and Leo for the week long break from classes, three were in the med bay, counting Ratchet, two were under the care of body detailers to get all the mud and debris out of their frames, Prime was in meetings all day with Lennox, Epps, Moreshower, and the still ever present Galloway, and the remainder were all tired, pissed and just not in a good mood.

Wheelie was one of the few in decent enough company, he was running laps around the makeshift obstacle course the guys had thrown together out of boredom with coke cans, a couple cardboard boxes and their suitcases. Bumblebee was in the middle of the small course out on the tarmac, Wheelie was supposed to dart under him and hit a ramp just right to go sailing into Sam's suitcase as padding. Mikaela was locked in the med bay helping fix Mudflap's circuitry after he'd taken a rather messy swim in the river, so Sam and Leo were left to their own devices since the barracks were still being worked on and no one not in a meeting knew where their rooms were.

That left them sprawled on Bee's hood, basking in the hot sun as college campus was still slushy with mud and cold, enjoying their time off without it being hectic and crazy.

"I'm bored...what do you wanna do?"

"I dunno...what do you wanna do...?"

"I dunno-"

"_Oh! Don't start that again!_"

Both laughed at Bee's radio, Leo finally sitting up and looking around.

"Target sighted."

Sam turned to follow his gaze to a spot next to the firing range bleachers.

An unlocked storage shed.

xxx

Meetings...

The one thing that while he excelled at alongside patience, diplomacy, and Decepticon aft kicking, he truly loathed. Especially those with Galloway and the other bureaucrats like him that could care less about the Autobot cause.

Needless to say over the last three hours the processor ache that had once been a dull throb was full blown agony by the time Optimus Prime left the conference room.

He was not happy.

Nor was he in the best shape, while not as injured as some of the others, his frame still had a myriad of dents and scratches his repair systems were rushing to fix, leaving his energy drained and everything sore, not helping was the persistent jet lag of having been up for four days straight before the raid due to surveillance, then flying home while helping Ratchet keep Ironhide from bleeding out on the jet, he'd barely managed to wipe off the energon on his servos before the meetings had begun.

Prime was exhausted. A cube of high grade in his office and several joors to recharge undisturbed were begging him to indulge, but he couldn't, not until he made sure Bumblebee had landed safely with his charge. Simmons had already checked in, having been in the last meeting and was off with Lennox to find his room. It was Leo and Sam now that Prime needed to find.

He was glad when Bee answered his comm ping with their exact location, it saved him from backtracking through the hanger, and from anyone seeing him stumble slightly when ducking through the back door that led to the runway next to the firing range.

Optimus prayed to Primus that his optics were glitching out from lack of sleep, his processor wasn't ready for what he found waiting for him.

He was damn sure most of NEST wasn't ready for the sight that would go down in history as the reason why certain storage sheds had to remain locked.

Didn't help that Epps and several others including Sideswipe were filming this.

xxx

Step One: Remove funny plastic cylinders that keep kids (and stupid adults) fingers out of the chair's air cylinder's way because it hurts like a bitch

Step Two: Engage air cylinder until fully extended so there's no way in hell a normal person's feet could touch the ground, apply glue to release mechanism so it can't drop

Step Three: Use duct tape as seat belts, gotta be safe

Step Four: (Prior to step one check gas levels) steady leaf blower in your lap and turn on, may need assistance from fellow comrade on chair

Step Five: Check around for the hundredth time than no one with any sense of authority (or obvious common sense) is in the vicinity

Step Six: Engage leaf blower and attempt to learn how to steer very quickly

Step Seven: Learn the hard way why a pair of leaf blowers on a tropical island were stored next to the firing range (courtesy of Wheeljack's "upgrades")

Step Eight: Scream

xxx

Will Lennox was a pretty easy going guy, and when living around giant alien robots you had to have a damn good sense of humor, and a lot of patience. Now the Bots had done some really weird things, their personalities not always meshing (no pun intended), and antics had gotten a little stranger when Wheeljack arrived. Rules had been written up to save everyone from just about everything when it came to weird activities...

Lennox forgot about college kids...

xxx

Sam didn't know what was worse, the fact that he was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe, or that he was going so fast stopping was no longer an option.

Leo wasn't much better, howling like an idiot as he zoomed past Sam.

They'd found office rolling chairs and leaf blowers...the rest is history.

Or was about to be as Sam moved just right to send him whipping around in a circle for a full minute before being able to snap out of and rocket down the tarmac.

The cheers and laughing from the sidelines that made it over the sound of the blower engines did nothing but egg the two college students on as they rushed back and forth on the runway. It wasn't until first Leo's and then Sam's blowers popped and put on a burst of speed did things get even more crazy...the leaf blowers weren't turning off.

"OOH SHIIIT!"

xxx

Prime watched the two kids act like total glitch-heads for a good twenty minutes, the gathering of soldiers and mechs watching the honestly hilarious antics ever growing as the Sam and Leo got louder the longer they did this. Now Optimus was usually pretty calm when it came to what his mechs and the other soldiers came up with for entertainment, the water fight this past Fourth of July was rather amusing; but he wasn't the only one panicking when the leaf blowers let out loud pops and the laughing screams turned into blood-curling ones as the two humans sped up.

Bumblebee took off running, Jolt moving to help as he was the next one in the best shape to chase after the two before they spun out of control or worse hit someone. They dropped into car mode to gain speed without shaking the ground, tires squealing and smoking as Sam and Leo tried ton control their movements to let them catch up. Jolt transformed and jumped, rolling as he avoided Leo almost ramming him, he slammed into the ground and rolled, not getting up easily as Bumblebee burned out, sliding off the tarmac and into the sand, transforming in a flash and lunging to grab Sam. He missed as the teen spun in a circle and whipped back to the other end.

Epps was yelling for someone to go get a net or anything that could stop them, and Lennox was running back to the main hangar hollering for Ratchet at the top of his lungs.

That was the last straw as he stepped forward, hips taking most of his weight as he swung a hand down, grabbing first Leo and a 'small' knife slicing the chair from him before depositing the boy on his shoulder as he twisted and grabbed Sam seconds before the boy would have crashed into his leg. Both office chairs fell to the ground with a crash, the manic leaf blowers dying in his fist that didn't hold Sam with a satisfying crunch.

His optics narrowed slightly as he finally looked to the two humans perched on his palm. His processor ache didn't help matters as he finally spoke, only able to get out one word.

"Why?"

The two looked to Prime, looked to each other, and looked back. Leo really should have kept his mouth shut.

"We didn't have any roller blades."

* * *

><p><strong>Haha! Funny chapter because it came to me and I couldn't resist... Review please!<br>**


	13. Being strong, holding on

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**Warning: Swearing  
><strong>

**To _Shadow Kat_: No he's with the others, just quiet. And yes stupidity at its finest!****  
><strong>

**To _Kashagal and Natures Ruler_: Thank you for the faves and follow!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Thirteen<br>**

**Being strong, holding on  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

The military base caused two reactions, for Cade, Prime, Drift, Crosshairs, Shane, and David...they were tense, wary of the soldiers, and stayed put in one corner of the hangar while Kate and Cheryl were taken aside for a meeting. Prime was the only one who had transformed back to his alt mode, Cade sitting on his front bumper watching everyone else.**  
><strong>

For Leo, Bumblebee, Tessa, Wheelie, Hound, and Brains, it was apparently a perfect source of entertainment, especially since the meeting had taken all the head officers and officials out of the room, leaving the a bunch of nerdy techies, and soldiers who were more interested in getting paper airplanes to loop through the metal rafters than anything else.

Wheelie managed to filch a stack of paper for them to use, and soon Tessa was standing on Hound's shoulder and trying to get her plane to go higher than Leo's as he was balanced on Bumblebee's shoulder. Didn't help that Hound who was supposed to be the mature one was egging them on while aiding Brains in folding his own plane.

"Yes! In your face!"

Cade watched as Tessa's plane swooped over Leo's dying creation, turning around and flying...

Right into Bumblebee's face plates.

The room lost it. Bee was swatting at the paper thing like it was a gnat buzzing at him, falling backwards while Leo yelled "Abandon ship!"

Hound caught him before he could hit the floor, laughing just as hard as Bee's vents blew the paper, folded or not, into the air, making a rather awkward paper flurry that swirled around for a good three minutes. Probably didn't help that after the papers had settled, the planes flew even more as the other men started joining in on Leo and Tessa's competition, and then some soldier had gone and found a leaf blower...

Not even Crosshairs and Joshua could keep from laughing at that, especially when Tessa climbed off Hound and start chasing paper airplanes, giggling hysterically with a mix of exhaustion and sheer boredom. Cade didn't hear the booted feet step onto the concrete floor, or the door shut behind him as several soldiers joined in with Tessa.

He did however see Prime's holoform leave out a side door. And he didn't look happy...

xxx

By the time Cade caught up with Optimus, he'd stalked off to a side shed, stopping by the cinder block wall.

And hauled back and punched it.

It actually left a couple cracks, even the holoforms could do a lot of damage. Prime continued to beat on the wall for several minutes, never breaking any of the bricks, but leaving a couple good sized dents. Something must have snapped, the flying fists stopped as he leaned against the wall, turning to slide down it and sit on the ground, eyes shut tight against whatever he was seeing.

"Prime?"

The mech scoffed, a humorless chuckle sliding from his throat as his hands clenched into fists again, "_Prime_...some leader I turned out to be...I don't deserve that name...the heritage that comes with the title..._worthless_..."

Now that made Cade pause, Cheryl had pulled him aside a couple nights ago, right before the mud fight. And spoke to him about her suspicions on Optimus. The Bot holoforms could eat human food, but alcohol was the easiest to process, which is why Cheryl had a 'bar' cabinet for the mechs to choose from when they wanted something different. It also explained why Cade only saw Trey and Tony knocking by a beer occasionally. Hound drank beer and scotch, Drift only touched sake, and Crosshairs liked gin and tonic, Bee wasn't allowed anything but beer as it was the only thing they could drink without it affecting them.

Optimus only drank Cheryl's good whiskey, she hadn't noticed until then that he'd emptied the two bottles within the first three days he'd been there. As a cop, Cheryl took a shot once in a while to deal with her job and sleep better afterwards. Someone drinking as much as Prime...

Was someone drinking to forget...

"You're not worthless," Prime scoffed again as Cade sat next to him, turned so he could look the mech in the eyes if he would actually look up. "Just because things look bad, doesn't they are...or always will be. Look at your Autobots, last year when we moved to Iowa, Tessa woke up screaming at night, and she wasn't the only one, I know there were nights none of us, human or Bot, slept well. Yeah it's not easy to get past all that's happened...but that doesn't mean you let it drag you down..."

Optimus shook his head, hands going to cover his face as he just seemed to give up, shoulders slumping as he dropped his head to his arms.

"...an experiment..."

"What?"

"The Creators...said we were nothing more than an experiment, living toys left to our own devices until they got bored with us. That being a Prime was a joke...everything I grew up learning about my people...was a damned _lie_!"

He slammed his fists onto the ground, the holoform hands getting cut up even more on the gravel.

Cade had no idea how to respond, he didn't know enough about the Autobots, especially Prime to come up with something that might be helpful, or even comforting at this point.

If this had been Lucas or Cheryl who'd just about cracked, Cade wouldn't hesitate to grab them and never let go, after he slapped them upside the head for resorting to drinking. In this case, he didn't think Prime would appreciate or even allow contact. Not knowing what else to do, and judging by Prime's lack of caring, Cade stood and left, feeling like he'd been run over by a truck.

Neither knew it, nor did Prime want to admit it, but Cade really should have gone with his gut. Not staying by him only pushed Optimus deeper and deeper into himself, and his spark wasn't able to stop it...

xxx

xx

xxx

They stayed at the base for another three hours, the main hangar had luckily been cleaned up by the time the meeting was done, though later Cheryl pouted that she'd missed all the action. The ending agreement was things would go back to the way they were, expect Kate's classic car (no one had said a name so Cade didn't have anything else to go on) would be moved to the base. No one mentioned any others, making Cade suspect they'd hidden things again, but by that point he wasn't willing to fight it.

Two agents would escort them back and then bring the other car down, staying only long enough to make sure the new terms were delivered to Tony and Trey. The only extra rule was if a Bot left the property they had to have a human with them at all times.

Kate and Cade ended up riding in Optimus, only because Crosshairs was pissed off and Hound only had a driver's seat where David had asked to ride. Everyone else was in either Drift or Bumblebee.

The first seven hours was nothing, they'd stopped twice for breaks, but Prime's cab was dead silent, Kate sleeping most of the way or staring out the window silently. Cade was just too frustrated at this point to care, and he was pretty sure Prime was just done with everything, even when his radio crackled to life with the other bots holding a conversation with everyone, Optimus stayed silent.

Things went smoothly, to the point Cade had just leaned back to doze for a little while himself when the semi's brakes slammed so hard and fast he slammed into the dash before the seat belt could lock. Prime swerved like hell on the road, coming to a stop sideways as Kate cussed and tried to see out in the pouring rain. A lightning strike lit up the sky, sending ominous shadows over the wet road, but that wasn't what made Cade's heart pound, it was the figure standing just ahead of them with about twenty others at his sides.

Galvatron had found them.

* * *

><p><strong>Tada! More fun time! The next chapter may take longer as I stink at battle scenes and want to do this right.<br>**

**Review please!**


	14. Can't let it bring us down

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**Warning: Swearing**

**To _stolethestarsaber, Shinigami92, _and_ Frank 2.0_: Thank you for the faves and follows!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Fourteen<br>**

**Can't let it bring us down  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

"Oh shit..."

"_Oh man...oh ma-an...ohmanohmanohmanohman_!"

"_Bee that is so not helping_!"

"_Will you two shut up?! None of this is helping!_"

"_What are your orders Sensei?_"

"Optimus...he's getting closer..."

"_Prime what're your orders_?"

"Optimus..."

"_Prime_?"

Optimus didn't answer any of them, he was frozen...Megatron had sent his spark pounding before, but the look in this thing's optics...

Cade was almost shaking as Galvatron raised an arm, transforming the servo into a wicked looking cannon. The other bots were already backing up to get farther away.

"Feet on the dash."

"What?"

Kate turned to Cade, "Feet braced on the dash, hand on the ceiling, brace yourself."

Cade did just that, tensing in Optimus' cab seconds before the rocket hit Prime's front tire, sending the truck rolling into the ditch. Cade screamed expletives as the radio whined with the others' shutting in panic. By the time Prime stopped rolling he was upside down in a muddy ditch, and not responding as first Kate then Cade dropped from his seat.

"Not good..."

"Now what?!"

Cade pointed out the window, Galvatron's pedes were getting closer, Kate swore, and started kicking at Prime's cracked windshield with her booted feet, the base had provided better clothes for everyone, ignoring the shouts over the broken radio that the others were trying to get to them.

"Kate..."

"Do you have faith in me?"

"What?"

She sighed, brushing her hair out of her eyes, "I know you don't trust me, and right now you have no reason to, but do you have faith in me to help?"

"..._You gotta have faith, Prime, in who we can be_..."

Cade nodded, shifting backwards as Kate reached up and grabbed the CB, continuing to kick at the windshield with all her strength, "Mayday-Mayday, calling all autobots in the area of the 8-6 corridor, mile marker 38, I know you idiots can hear me so someone get their lazy aft over here!"

Galvatron was less than ten yards from them when the oh so satisfying and horrible sound of shattering glass finally rang out in the cab. Cade winced, Optimus had to feel that if him just cleaning off the glass in his shed in Texas sent the mech shuddering.

He didn't have time to ask, Kate was dragging him out through the windshield, ignoring the mud and broken glass as they fled. Just in time, Galvatron made it to Prime and before they could do anything kicked the semi again, this time Optimus transformed as he rolled, landing on his front.

Cade just about flipped when a set of hands pulled him to his feet, turning he found the man doing the same to Kate, the blonde wearing a bullet proof vest and kevlar jacket. His belt was what caught the Texan's attention, on his back and one side pocket was a red cross med kit, his right hip held a gun.

"Max! Where's-"

"Taking the other humans besides the agents back to those without weapons ready behind the lines, about a mile East of here. Came to get you two out-"

"Optimus!"

The three spun to watch Hound send a chaotic punch into a Con's face as he tried to go after Galvatron advancing on the Prime, what was worse is Optimus wasn't getting up...

Kate turned back to Max as Trey drove up next to them in his Jeep, looking pissed and anxious. "Max, give me your vest, I can't leave them..."

"Fuck no!"

Her next statement was lost as two flashy sports cars blazed past them, skidding on the water on the road as they rushed more of the Cons, one got kicked, sending the blue car rolling, but before it could crash it broke apart and became a blurr of motion as the mech charged his assailant. Punches flying faster than Cade could track.

Max was flinching at the sound of metal hitting metal, eyes panicked. "Ok nevermind, take it."

Kate cracked a smile as she took the vest, cinching the straps tighter so it hugged her torso as Max climbed up into the Jeep, turning to help Cade up. He shook his head, "No...I can't..."

"Sir I have orders-"

"From who? Prime never said anything!"

Max sighed, but handed the Kevlar to him, taking the gun from his belt and handing it to Kate and then taking the hand gun in Trey's glove compartment to give to Cade

"Thought you were a Bot."

Trey rolled his eyes irritably, "I am, broke my T-cog and can't transform, all my power's been rerouted to speed and keeping a solid holoform running permanently, I'm the runner, Max here's a nurse and one of our few medics. By the way...name's Tracks."

Cade nodded, turning to see Kate already sprinting to hide in the ditch to fire at the Con trying to rip Drift's head off with his own blades, the ninja struggling to fight and keep track of Prime.

"Hey Yeager!"

He turned back as the jeep began to back up to turn around, getting the medic off the front lines.

"Good luck."

xxx

Optimus couldn't move...and to be honest he didn't want to...they were outnumbered, outgunned, and he was out of the will to live.

"Well-well-well...how the mighty have fallen, how does it feel to be nothing Prime...turned away by those human pets or yours-hunted by them even...and then turned down by the mighty...look at you...you. Are. Nothing!"

A blast of something sent Galvatron scrambling backwards, howling as something similar to napalm coated his chest plates and burned at the paint and metal.

"...Optimus..."

"Optimus get up!"

"Get up Prime!"

Black faceplates suddenly filled his vision, the scarred left optic narrowed dangerously, "Get. Your. Aft. Moving!"

That did it, it took him a minute to get traction in the mud, rain blurring his optics once he stood fully, but once up he was in significantly less danger than being down. And it allowed him to see the mech who belonged to the servos that had pulled him upright.

Ironhide

"...you..."

"Yeah-yeah dead and all...snap out of it Prime! Less talk more kickin' aft!"

The weapon specialist let go once Prime nodded, turning and charging Galvatron with a roar, the huge Con went down, giving Prime time to pull out his sword and engage his blasters. Galvatron was not happy when he stood up again, glaring back at Prime before smirking.

"It's about time..."

The two titans collided, their fight overpowering the booming sounds of the battle around them. As Optimus had gotten to his peds, several more bots had joined the fight, evening out the numbers.

Kate's Team

Galvatron didn't give him time to question this, more interested in beating the hell outta Prime while he had the change.

One blow hit Prime's abdominal plating, breaking the armor and collapsing the empty and weakened tanks underneath. The metal was forced against his back strut, and the parasite...

The resulting pain was agonizing, making him scream as his knee joints buckled, roaring in pain as he grabbed onto Galvatron's armor to remain upright. Time hadn't been kind to the the once brilliant tyrant's mind, the neglect and abuse of the human's messing with it had ruined what little sense he'd had left. Galvatron's servos grabbed Prime's shoulders, shoving him off before holding him steady.

A knee came up, right into Prime's face, the mask panels breaking and collapsing in against his face plates.

Optimus dropped at that, servo going to hold his face as his optics began to fail, seeing hazy snapshots of Galvatron walking away, calling off his soldiers and driving away amidst heavy fire. Two of the faster Bots went after them, Crosshairs and someone else if Prime could see correctly with his bad vision and the ever present rain.

Ironhide was suddenly in front of him, trying to get his attention, he could only blink dumbly as his old friend helped him sit up, he managed to spit out a mouthful of energon, glossa finding a tear in his mouth cavity, and one audio receptor was blown out completely. His denta ached like the Pit, but that nothing compared to his left optic and the ridge of plating that humans kept calling a nose. He was pretty damn sure it was broken.

Cade banged on his leg, getting him to look down at him, that wasn't a good idea, the last of the energon in his systems left his head...and he blacked out.

* * *

><p><strong>Battle chapter! Not the finest but hey they're not my specialty.<br>**

**Review please!**


	15. My life with you means everything

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**Warning: Swearing**

**Thank you to _PrimeReader_: for the follow. And Thank you _elita13, _and_ Mystical Void_: for the faves.**

**To _Shadow Kat_: You like Blurr huh? Answerthecall does fantastic battle chapters, I'm not good at them. And yep Trey=Tracks, not telling yet about the rest! Thank you!**

**To _Guest_: Yep cliffies! Thank you!**

**To iiiii: I do friend pairings, or mech/mech thank you for the suggestions/review!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Fifteen<br>**

**My life with you means everything  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

Cade ended up riding back inside a huge GMC topkick, matte black in color and engine rumbling loud enough to compete with Prime's. Optimus was on a trailer behind hauled by a light yellow and white semi without a sleeper, unconscious and needing medical care. The two agents who'd accompanied them were staying behind on the battlefield to clean it up once helped arrived. Cheryl's and David's cop cars came to meet them as they were all leaving, everyone was safe and the only damage was a myriad of dents and scratches of various bots.

The Texan shifted on the black leather seat, watching the bright headlights cut into the night as they reached the last ten miles before the farm gates. The other one in the cab was a guy Kate and Tessa's age, dark blonde spiked hair, black t shirt and jeans over work boots, and black leather jacket. He sat in the driver's seat, one hand on the steering wheel casually, but it slid through his fingers unheeded, the truck driving himself.

"You must be Connor, Kate mentioned you had a 'bad ass truck'."

Ironhide chuckled, cab vibrating a little as his radio lit up, showing he was listening.

"Yeah, and you must be Cade Yeager, I went to college with her and Tessa, still down at that campus, couldn't get a transfer to the local ROTC. Met 'Hide here three years ago."

Silence took over the cab again, Cade smirking a little at the other's soft country accent, Ironhide flashing his lights when a flame painted McLaren Spider flew past him, none of the bots were going the speed limit, but even they had their limits.

"...slaggin' glitches..."

Connor snorted, rubbing the steering wheel, "You know he's always moving, Jessi's probably anxious to get back, she hasn't been home-hell none of us have since last June."

"The farm hands Cheryl let go..."

"Us leaving, we had it arranged with Harrison that the Bots would be safe, as long as we split up so there was less damage in case of an attack. That meeting Kate was in at the base, yeah it was calling us to make sure we hadn't broken the terms as well."

Cade nodded, but still didn't relax, "But why couldn't she tell us? Wasn't like we'd go against her or you guys..."

Ironhide grunted, radio shutting off with a burst of static. Connor tensed in his seat, jaw clenching.

"She was under orders, we all were..."

"From who?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Why not?"

"He hasn't been back to the farm since before Kate graduated high school, we lost contact a few weeks later, the night before you arrived. We don't think he's alive..."

Cade was quiet for a moment, "Meant something to her huh?"

Ironhide answered, gruff voice sounding grieved and just plain tired, "He was Kate's guardian."

xxx

xx

xxx

He woke up in the hay barn, tarps draped over the bales that he was laid against. His left wrist ached, probably because the IV in it had been changed out several times already, the movement of the port causing irritation. The energon flowing into his main lines was helping tremendously, dripping slowly from the modified barrel that hung from a rack on the rafters. His tanks were still collapsed, repairing them would be difficult, but the parasite had settled and was no longer attacking him, he could still feel it shifting and trying to discern why it had been compressed, but the pain had stopped.

His face plates...

His jaw strut felt cracked, but not broken all the way, he could still move it so the joint was just tender. The armor panels on his helm had been removed on that side of his head. Tiny scratches explained that shrapnel had been clogging his audio sensors, and it stung badly. His face plates were bent and distorted out of place, the protomesh underneath the metal that allowed them to hold such similar expressions to humans was swollen, even his mouth cavity felt off from the pressure that ran around the outer side of his right optic and down to his jaw. Dried energon had settled on the metal and mesh, making it itch and ache all at the same time.

The energon IV had a sensor on it, beeping when it was emptied. Having unfortunately been in this situation before, Prime knew to pinch off the hose leading down before it emptied completely to keep air out of his lines. Disconnecting the hose, he quickly tucked it into the port on the barrel to keep the energon from spilling, wincing as the port on his wrist throbbed as it sealed itself automatically.

Standing took a lot of effort, hopefully Cheryl wouldn't be upset with him for leaving dents in the rafters when he'd clung to them until his equilibrium stabilized. The only upside was the hay barn while not every wide on the floor, it was tall, meaning he didn't have to duck as much to leave. The farm was quiet, it was pretty well into the evening as he slowly walked down to the lower yard. Processor replaying what little he remembered of the night before, the memory bytes were scrambled.

Cade was outside, seeming to be the only one as Prime stiffly sat down, intakes heaving for air as he leaned on the shed for support, already exhausted. If the human thought of anything of his face, he was polite enough to not say anything as he brought his knees to his chest, grimacing at his stiff joints and all over weak frame.

"Was wondering when you would wake up."

Prime tried to let out a snort, only succeeding in throbbing pain as his servo went to cradle his aching face. A heavy servo rested on his left shoulder, gripping in comfort until he was able to relax a little.

"Prime...anything I can do, damn...your optic's tinted funny."

Ironhide snorted, rubbing Prime's shoulder plating soothingly, "Tinted? It's purple from popped wires and energon exposure, kind like a burst blood vessel in you humans."

Cade nodded, turning around when Kate tapped his shoulder, holding up a small bucket with warm water. "Thought this would help."

xxx

It did, Kate sat on her jacket on Prime's knee, wearing mechanics gloves over rubber ones as she gently cleaned the energon off Prime's face plates, the warm water soothing the pain away as her small hands didn't have enough pressure to cause pain. Prime relaxed under her hands, sighing in contentment as for the first time in years he knew for a fact a human wasn't going to hurt him.

Her fingers ran along the delicate metal shutters that covered his optics, lightly tugging at the bends and straightening the strips so it stopped irritating his optic and rubbing the thin line of exposed protomesh that surrounded his optic naturally.

"Cade can you toss me the snap pack from the first aid kit in the shed?"

The inventor complied, catching the bucket when she dropped it to him, having already thrown the water off to the side away from the two transformers.

Sudden cold penetrated Prime's faceplates, making him gasp and groan, right fist banging against the ground to keep him from harming Kate if he moved it to his face.

"Easy Prime...it's alright..."

Her soothing voice helped, gave him something to focus on as the ice pack cooled the hot energon causing the swelling, while it wasn't gone completely, it did stop most of the throbbing.

His 'bruised' optic was able to see her clearly when she removed the pack, tossing it down to Cade as well.

"Thank you."

Her smile was soft and genuine, her own movements careful with her own black eye and bruising, marks Optimus wished had never happened. Funny how twenty-four hours ago he'd thought she'd deserved it.

"I have to apologize Optimus Prime, I did lie to you, and your team and friends, believe me hiding that for over a year especially when breaking that oath could have helped you was killing me."

Prime sighed, "And I apologize as well, you were right...I was not truthful with you about informing the government officials, nor with Leo's data pulling."

"You do know he didn't just dump the network right?"

Again he sighed, but couldn't help but grin a little, "I figured he wouldn't, where is the data?"

"Backed up to a friend, trying to get him here within the next couple days, he wasn't happy when I called him this morning."

"I can imagine."

Kate smiled, "Yeah...anyway I was under orders and I couldn't risk anyone else getting hurt since until last night, no one had gotten hurt from it."

Prime's metal brow furrowed slightly, "Orders from who?"

Ironhide shifted where he stood, sitting down and crossing his arms over his chest with a soft huff, "The SecDef, and Kate's Guardian."

"Who is...?"

The black mech shook his helm, nodding to Kate slightly, she would no longer meet Prime's gaze.

:Who was it Ironhide?:

:It doesn't matter...just another casualty in the pit-spawned war.:

:Ironhide...:

"No Prime...we've lost so many it's not worth adding another name to burden your spark..."

"More lies..."

"No...just not telling the truth."

Cade sighed, "Kate, not helping..."

She shrugged, balancing on Prime's knees and putting her jacket back on before sliding down his shin, hopping off his foot like she'd done so a hundred times.

"That still leaves one thing...Ironhide..."

"Yeah...'bout that..."

Kate winced, "Hey uh...Cade? Remember that photo of the farm Cheryl sent you when we first moved in?"

"Yeah..."

"Well...remember how it didn't have that giant and rather steep hill behind the house..."

"Umm...yeah..."

"Let's just say it's not completely a hill..."

Ironhide lost it, laughing like an idiot as Cade stared at the girl he considered his second daughter, albeit he sometimes wanted to strangle her for taking after Cheryl and hedging around a topic.

"Then what is it...underneath the dirt and grass and trees?"

"What's left of the _Ark_."

* * *

><p><strong>Things cleared up a bit more? huh-huh?<strong>

**Review please!  
><strong>


	16. So I won't give up that easily

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**Warning: Swearing**

**To _Shadow Kat_: Thank you!**

**To _Dragongyrl24_: Thank you for the fave and follow!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Sixteen<br>**

**So I won't give up that easily  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

Ironhide refused to let Optimus see the ship until the next morning, proving his point that Prime needed rest when the mech tried to stand and his legs gave out. The semi reluctantly agreed when his vision spun once he was able to sit up. Hound and Ironhide had to help him back to the hay barn, and though Optimus was dead on his pedes by the time they got him up there, he did try to fight a fresh Iv being put in his wrist.

He only gave up Hound returned after dragging Bumblebee in as well, the scout sagging in the commando's arms in exhaustion, the camaro didn't fight his former guardian in inserting the IV, just collapsed back against a smaller set of hay bales under the loft across from Prime. Kate was setting up a stained rug on top of the layer of straw on the loft, rolling out sleeping bags for Connor and Cade to stay the night out with them.

Ironhide settled at the door, ready to power down into a light doze so he could change out the IV's when needed, and make sure Prime didn't take his out...

Optimus fell into recharge with ease, finally shuttering his optics as Kate turned off the electric lantern.

xxx

At some point in the night, Tessa had joined them, leaving Cade between amazed and confused.

Connor was sprawled out over half the rug, Kate tucked under one arm with her head on his chest. Tessa was also in the pile, but her head was on Kate's stomach like she used to do years ago. Connor's arms were stretched out as to not restrain either girl, just apparently provide a pillow. Cade rubbed at his eyes as he sat up, looking around the dim barn. Prime was sound asleep, head tipped to one side as his arm rested over his dented abdominal plates. The IV was tucked up and away, the barrel probably emptied hours ago. Ironhide had moved, now sitting against the opposite wall, Bumblebee tucked against one side with his head in the black mech's lap.

It was the scout that woke next, shifting under the servo that must have been petting his doorwings until Ironhide fell asleep doing so. The mech snorted slightly in his sleep, not waking even though Bumblebee was shaking in silent laughter at the tips of the digits tickling his doorwing. At least that's what Bumblebee thought...

Cade smirked as Ironhide opened an optic enough to glance at Bee, a smirk on his face plates before his digits moved.

Bumblebee's shrieking vocal synthesizer made Connor jerk awake, sending Kate bouncing off his chest and her head hitting the floor, Tessa squealed as Kate's kicking legs sent her rolling off the rug and into straw. Ironhide was laughing as Optimus let out a groan, not even opening his optics at the disturbance.

"Must you Ironhide?"

The black mech smirked, standing with a soft hiss as he rolled a shoulder, digits massaging the tender armor where weld lines left rather visible stripes.

"Aw Prime...kid's fine...wake up."

Optimus growled as Ironhide lightly kicked his foot, not moving from his position.

"Make something of yourself, Kate and Connor got work to do and they have to unlock the doors."

"Doors for what again?"

Cade chuckled as Optimus still didn't open his optics, merely rolled to lie on his side, tucking his head onto his arm...

"Ow!"

Kate winced in sympathy as Prime grimaced, servo going to the injured side of his helm as he sat up, looking anything but pleased at having to wake up.

"I think we should go get something to eat while you guys wake up more...or in Bee's case stop shaking from laughing so hard. Meet you at the shed in twenty."

xxx

Cheryl joined them when Cade, Kate, Tessa, and Connor headed to the shed, finding Ironhide, Prime, and Hound waiting. The machine shed that held Kate's classic car, only currently the car was cover less and actually a red and white mech waiting for them, arms crossed but optics glancing around nervously. Ironhide nodded to Kate as she used a key to unlock what Cade had thought was a electrical box, instead it revealed a computer and key pad, the screen lighting up as the door opened. Kate and Connor had to enter their own codes, Cheryl finishing the set with hers as well.

The panel of concrete the red and white car usually sat on shimmered, a projector turning off the concrete illusion and revealing a metal door that retracted to the back, concrete sloped down a foot to connect with a metal ramp that dropped and turned away.

"Bots drive down, we take the stairs. Slope's too risky for us to navigate, the metal has no traction."

With that Cheryl stepped around the gaping door as the red and white car lead the way for the others. A parts closet was a heck of a lot bigger on the inside than Cade thought, a set of stairs behind the shelves that swung out of the way.

"Sorry for the long drop, the lift is kinda underneath the horse arena and I haven't gotten the chance to move it to fix that.." Cheryl called back as she skipped down the flights of stairs, each taking them deeper and deeper into the metal tube they were in the echoed faintly with a soft hum.

"So how much of the farm is on top of the ship?"

"Well, when it crashed it had already dug a trench for couple miles before stopping before it hit the house, the amount of dirt it disturbed rearranged the hills and messed up a good number of the barns here when we moved here. Kate and I had only been in the house for about a week before we woke up to an earthquake worthy of the apocalypse. Took us all about a month to fix things and bury the ship, building the bot door over a maintenance hatch. This is actually a ventilation tube that runs down the center of the spiral. We built the barns over things like ventilation tubes and monitor ports so we can keep an eye on things inconspicuously. I was actually wondering how long it would take you to notice the hill that randomly appeared behind my house."

Cade smirked, "Yeah...so how big is this thing?"

He spoke just as they exited the stair case, having dropped four stories down at least judging by the flights of stairs. The bots minus the red and white one were waiting at the entrance to the maintenance hatch in a corner.

Kate skipped forward, leading the way down the hall, "Red's probably gone to check the networking and security, he doesn't like new people."

"There's only about an eighth of the ship left, it took fire near Pluto and then broke up in the steroid belt in this system. Don't know if anything else landed on Earth, but this is all we've got."

Ironhide's words hit Prime hard, the mech pausing at a spot where the wall of the ship was ripped to shreds, spray on concrete keeping the dirt back as it met the walls. Optimus' digits gently traced a broken and half gone line of cybertronian glyphs, optics narrowing in recognition. Hound's servo on his shoulder made him turn and continue following Kate who acted like nothing had happened.

Cade watched Prime, his frame had tensed at seeing the glyphs and his mood had seemed to darken further they moved into the ship. Kate and Ironhide lead them past what Cade guessed wwere 'bed rooms' judging by the evenly spaced doors with "name plates" beside them. Optimus stopped reading them after a few had made his servos clench into tight fists.

The hall ended and Kate turned right, jogging to an open door tall enough for Optimus to have no issues, in fact the entire ship (or what was left of it) was built for bots Prime's size or even bigger, the mech had a good ten feet of clearance on the door alone.

This room was a big contract to the hallways, instead of soft tan with grey, this room had a white floor with light gray counters and cabinets lining the walls, six shiny metal berths were lined up in two rows of three in the center with movable scanners retracted against the ceiling above them. Screens and monitors were all along the wall opposite the door, one end was shelving with clearly labeled bins, the other had two doors, both looking like offices judging by the windows set in them.

"This was the original maintenance bay, used for basic stuff so as to not back up the full med bay. A shot penetrated the hull and set the full med bay on fire, had to move as much as they could to salvage the supplies, 'Racer's office is full of bins and so is the storage closet across the hall."

At that Ironhide stopped talking, and a white mech with red cross symbols and a few thin red stripes stepped forward.

"First Aid."

The medic nodded to Prime, gesturing for Houng to get up on the nearest berth while he adjusted another one for Prime's size. Ironhide moved the humans to an empty berth for safety.

"Neither one of you move. Computer, begin scans."

The mech's sharp tone earned a snigger from Max who was standing on a counter, he waved over to them and wiped his forehead on his green scrubs.

"Max the human RN and medic and First Aid..."

"You got it Tess, First Aid is the equivalent of a chief senior RN with specialization in multiple areas, right under the CMO."

"Ratchet..."

First Aid visibly flinched at that, muttering to himself as he began to examine the scans coming in from the lights tracking over Prime and Hound. A smaller monitor held a chart, the names of each bot in order of priority with notes alongside on what needed to be done. Hound's results came up and First Aid sorted through it, sending the data to the list and sticking him between two others in the second half the list.

"You're good to go, get out."

"Aid cut it out."

The mech glanced to Max, sighing heavily through his intakes as he turned to Prime, switching a monitor to a different type of scanner as he pulled out what reminded Cade of a cordless ultra-sound wand.

Prime winced as the medic pressed against his abdominal plating, his servos gripped the berth edges, helm tipped back and staring at the ceiling and bright lights.

"What else is attached? There must be a power unit..."

"And energon synthesizer, runs on a loop, just enough to keep what's left lit and the med bay running fully, everything else is on strict energy rationing until we can get the hydropump working, there's an underground stream right on the other side of the wall in the unit to provide power."

Optimus could keep distracted from the pain if he kept First Aid talking, and it made the medic relax a little. "What else?"

"Some storage rooms, a couple berth rooms are still intact, the deck six training room and attached rec room, the weapon's vault, and the security office Red Alert hid himself in."

"Deck six...that means that security room was part of the main-"

"Stop talking."

Prime narrowed his optics but complied, First Aid wasn't one to talk unless you could distract him, Ratchet hadn't minded unless it interrupted his scans...

First Aid growled softly, turning to Optimus with a pissed expression, "Care to add anything about this pit-spawned thing in you that wasn't in the data burst?"

The red and blue mech didn't answer right away, groaning as First Aid pressed harder to get a better image around the collapsed tanks, "Nothing...the Creators implanted it before sending me back to Earth, I didn't know what it was until I was deca-lightyears away...Hound examined it upon my arrival here and was unable to get deep scans let alone a biopsy."

The medic grunted, retracting a servo and revealing a wicked looking needle that made all the humans cringe and Ironhide and Hound step back even further.

Optimus roared in pain as First Aid jabbed the needle in a tiny gap in his dented armor, barely missing any parts and stabbing the parasite. It of course did not like being poked with a sharp needle and began to retaliate. Ironhide jumped forward, slamming his weight down on Prime's shoulders to keep him from moving and breaking the needle. By the time First Aid removed the needle and pulled it off his arm with the attached syringe filled with what looked like black beads, Prime was having for air, shaking under Ironhide's servos.

Hound growled, "What the frag Aid?! You were the mech everyone preferred over the Hatchet!"

First Aid glared, already setting up scanners and monitors to examine the sample, "I don't believe in fighting, I'm a medic, not a warrior...but I will not watch those left of my kind die at the hands of those who swore to aid us."

Max shifted on the work counter, "Which is why I'm down here, if you haven't noticed yet Cade, Tessa...almost all the Bots have a human partner, someone the government can keep tabs on and this way we're the only ones accountable to what happens. First Aid gets attacked while driving me to work at the hospital, I didn't keep things quiet and his location got found out."

"Speaking of out, all of you go, Prime I'll prep things to get you repaired, come back tonight."

xxx

Kate had to run to the security room after they were all booted from the med bay, the ship was huge...and the bots elected to carry the humans, well Cheryl and Connor balanced on Ironhide's shoulders while Tessa and Cade sat on Hound's, Kate was content to run ahead of them, grabbing a bike that was left in a corner for that purpose.

Red Alert was a damned good Security Director, and in his element in front of about two dozen monitors flashing with cameras all over the ship and the farm, he was much more relaxed than when they'd seen him an hour ago.

"Hey Red, came for keys to the vault."

"Same place they always are."

"In the drawer right in front of you so hand 'em over."

xxx

Hound whistled appreciatively as he stepped in after Kate unlocked the door, Ironhide held Prime back after the humans entered.

"In there is why I'm here to keep kickin' aft...and why a couple others are as well..."

Optimus' brow furrowed but he nodded, stepping into the vault he hadn't seen in close to a century.

Hound was switching out grenades on his belt, adding to his variety, the humans were staring, well Tessa and Cade were staring, the other three were admiring a rather impressive and rather large weapon on the wall.

Even Optimus had to freeze...the head was a stunning silver, navy blue metal bands wrapping around it and connecting the head to the shaft, small gold bands sat in between the silver and blue that twisted around the long shaft, ending in a thick grip meant for large servos, navy blue with gold glyphs around the top, the name of the weapon in ancient test.

Prime was breathless as he stared, barely able to say anything when Cade looked to him for help.

"The Forge of Solus Prime."

* * *

><p><strong>Tada! Mega chapter! Woot woot!<br>**

**Review please!**


	17. I'll blow it away, blow it away

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Review please, they are my fuel and without them I starve and do not write...**

:comm link:

"_radio/Bee's lyrics_"

**Warning: Swearing**

**To _Shadow Kat_: Thank you! Yeah he has that affect on people...  
><strong>

**To _orihime1793, MrsOptimusPrime379, Natalitha, _and_ Juliet1996_: Thank you for the faves and follows!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Seventeen<br>**

**I'll blow it away, blow it away  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

"The Forge holds untold amounts of power from the core of Cybertron, it can build bridges, destroy cities, break the strongest metals...and repair some of the greatest injuries."

Cade nodded from where he sat on Prime's shoulder, the mech sitting on top of the hill that was the ship. Kate and Connor were down below working the horses in the arena, the teen riding Ferric while Kate lunged Hornet. Tessa was brushing out SnR while Ironhide's holoform stood against the fence watching, calling back and forth with Connor.

"And apparently bring back from the dead..."

Prime made a low noise, "The Ark would have held full protoform shells, transfer a few parts and provide enough power and energon, it's like getting a whole new body. The Forge would be able to make up for the fact that the parts would be dead and likely damaged severely...but it only works if the spark wishes to return from the Well..."

"Huh..."

Optimus hummed softly, "But that doesn't explain where First Aid received some of Ironhide's original protoform...most of his frame was destroyed by rapid rust disintegration years ago...the government confiscated the remains after Chicago..."

Cade sighed, watching as Kate unhooked the lunge line and climbed on Hornet bareback, "Looks like Kate's got another secret..."

xxx

Total curiosity and the fact that Max was griping about First Aid's temper made Cade ask the daring question of First Aid if he could watch while the medic did repairs on Prime.

The rescue jeep agreed only after Max insisted on company since First Aid had called Hoist, a tow truck, back to the farm to help when further studying of the scans revealed just how 'fragged up' Prime's systems were.

Hoist was prepping a new pair of tanks on a berth next to the expanded one Optimus was settling on, wincing as the movement jarred his abdomen. The mech sighed as laid back, shifting until comfortable as the headrest adjusted to fit his helm automatically.

First Aid was in a decontamination bath, prepping in case repairs ended up more invasive, the slightly anxious medic wasn't looking forward to seeing how the parasite had connected to the tanks, hoping it was via tubing versus direct panels.

Max had set up a set of chairs and a cooler for him and Cade, but had a bag of clothes ready in case asked to step in and help. First Aid and Hoist could do a lot of things but they still weren't as highly trained as Ratchet had been. Sometimes humans were able to help and make up for the gap.

First Aid seemed much more "normal" as Max put it, as he entered the bay, typing in a couple commands to a computer, tuning the overhead scanner to pick up and monitor Prime's vital signs. Hoist gave the medic a nod, servos becoming tools similar to a drill and small pry bar as he began to remove Prime's armor that didn't retract automatically due to damage.

"I'm not going to administer any pain relievers until you need them, I want you as coherent as possible for this."

Prime nodded, breathing steady and slow, even as his servos gripped the berth as Hoist had to cut an armor connection to get the piece off. The med bay was silent for several moments, once in awhile broken by the sound of armor banging or Prime grunting in response. Hoist removed all the pieces that were dented too badly for Prime's systems to repair on their own, it took both of the mechs to get the last pieces off that had become caught in the collapsed tanks.

Optimus cried out when the panel finally came loose, groaning as First Aid swore, turning to flip switches and turned on a hazy light that covered berth in an orange glow.

Max explained as Cade's confusion grew, "Containment field, the tank's probably open and exposed, like a ruptured stomach, gotta keep things clean."

"Ah."

Optimus winced as Hoist moved quickly to clean the wound while First Aid removed the damaged tanks, intakes heaving in relief at the parasitic protoform retracting off the tank panels as it was lifted away. Prime was having issues breathing as First Aid prepped the area to insert the new tanks, Hoist went ahead and set up a face mask over his mouth and nose, turning on air. Prime's breathing eased as his filters didn't have to strain for enough air, his optics eased shut, no longer staring at the ceiling to focus on anything but pain.

The tanks clicked into place with a shove, the tubing reattaching with a few tugs to keep them aligned properly.

"Maxwell-"

"On it."

The nurse jumped up and began pulling on a set of coveralls, taking a belt to keep the fabric tight against his torso as he jumped onto First Aid's servo. Hoist offered his to Cade, setting the man on his shoulder to watch as Max was set on Prime's chest while First Aid turned off a handful of sensory nodes. Max began the awkward task of crawling over the new tanks to put the bracket bolts back in place, and to tighten the tube clamps that sat on top of each other, extremely difficult for medic to access.

Prime didn't move as the human crawled over his frame, probably because he couldn't feel it, but he did jerk roughly when something brushed the parasite and the damn thing reacted, pulling away and tugging at the tubing and neural wiring. First Aid sighed heavily, intakes shaking as he shifted a servo into another needle, Prime tensing when he saw it.

"First Aid-"

"Hush Prime..."

The medic turned to the work counter, pulling out a vial of soft green liquid that fizzed slightly as he pulled some of into the syringe. Max jumped clear as First Aid eased the needle into the parasite, taking care to not startle it as he injected the liquid. Optimus reacted as it did, shifting uncomfortably for several minutes until the liquid sedated the parasite, leaving Optimus groaning softly as he rubbed at his optics sluggishly.

"What in the..."

"Protoform numbing agent, will keep it numb and quiet for several hours, it's woven into you tight enough you're feeling the effects also."

Optimus only moaned in response, going limp on the berth as Max went back to work, wincing as he reached further into Prime's systems when tightening the last hose clamp led him to find shrapnel digging into another part.

"Carburetors for you guys are like diaphragms right?"

First Aid nodded, "That's the closest analogy, yes."

"Ah hell...Cade, mind getting in my spare coveralls and giving me a hand, this thing is clogged with so much shit I can't see half of it."

Hoist carried the Texan over, digging a tool box out of a drawer and finding human sized pliers for both of them.

Optimus must have been really out of it, he barely blinked when Cade settled on his stomach next to Max, the two reaching in and beginning to clean. First Aid moved the berth covered with armor panels, pulling out a welder as he and Hoist began fixing gashes and dents.

They managed to pull chunks of metal, hardened grease, and gravel from out of the carburetor, Max took a toothbrush to the part to get the rest of sludge off while Cade piled the debris in a bucket one of the medics had placed at Prime's hip.

"So how long have you been..."

"Working with First Aid?" Max glanced up with a smile, "About two years, the Ark crashed in 2009, and between the government restrictions and just the dynamic of everyone, I paired off with Hoist and First Aid just because I knew what I was doing. Still not sure how I put up with him..."

"Nor I you."

Cade smirked, shifting his position to keep parts from digging into his legs as he wove his arm down under part of the transmission to pull out handfuls of baked grease and gravel.

"Damn Optimus...where did all these rocks come from?"

He hadn't been expecting an answer, and one didn't come. Optimus was numb to their actions, and their words, he reacted when First Aid shined a light in his optics to check his sensors, but otherwise didn't move. Considering Max was scrubbing furiously with a toothbrush and grease solvent, probably didn't hurt, but had to be irritating as hell.

Repairs continued much like that, Cade and Max taking over when First Aid was unable to reach something without temporarily removing massive amounts of Prime's systems. While normally that wouldn't be an issue, Prime was in no condition to handle that kind of repairs. Hoist mainly continued working on the armor, patching holes, welding and sanding tears, and smoothing out dents, he only paused to help First Aid set up an energon IV when the computer flashed a warning as Optimus' energon pressure dropped.

Max kept a running dialogue running, and as he started naming the bots on and off the farm Cade realized he was doing it to keep Prime conscious, the mech's fingers shifted as he listened.

Trailbreak or Tony as Cade knew him was what Max called a heavy-hitter, right along side Ironhide and Tracks before the Jeep broke his T-cog, First Aid and Leo's sister Sarah weren't sure if they could machine out a new one or not.

The yellow and white semi that had hauled Prime back from the highway battle was Huffer, his driver Carly a short little blonde young lady whose temper was as bad as Huffer's attitude. The cab only freightliner was the main truck that had hauled the feed wagon and cattle trailer for the farm before they'd all gotten relocated.

Jessica Hanson was the Jessi Connor had mentioned when the McLaren Spider had sped around Ironhide, the flame painted exotic car was named Hot Rod, and he was a Wrecker, along with Huffer, Springer, Perceptor, and Kate's Guardian who had yet to be named, Cade had a feeling whoever it was had been someone important.

Perceptor was Max's 'normal' car when he was off duty from the hospital and not supposed to drive a rescue jeep around town. Connor was on his way with Ironhide to go get the little electric car along with Inferno and Firestar, their "drivers" were Jacobs and Dante, and both pairs were 'married', well Jacobs and Dante were, the Bots were bonded. Prime's servo relaxed from the fist he'd formed, Firestar was one of three female Autobots left. Lancer was out on another planet with a few other Bots, staying at a neutral outpost to keep a hold of the energon mine there, at least that's what First Aid knew, it had been about twenty years since they'd seen that squad.

Not like they could go check with the Ark in pieces.

The other femme on Earth was Chromia, and not only was her driver Amy in the army and dating Connor, she was Ironhide's sparkmate.

That information alone was enough to stir Optimus enough that Max and Cade jumped off him, luckily having finished already and were no longer half_ in_ the prime.

"Told you to hold still."

Optimus ignored First Aid's scolding, wincing as he sat back against the raised berth once Hoist had adjusted it. Max took the sudden change in stride, moving to the cables that made up Prime's ankles and began to clean them, Cade copying as the RN/mechanic continued talking.

Two of the cars that had been at the recent battle were Blaster and Blurr, both speed demons and irritated Cheryl to no end. Her cruiser...was Autobot SIC Prowl, the frame shaking sigh of relief Prime let out spoke volumes of how he felt about that. Along with Red Alert, the security director and Prowl kept things running protocol and law wise while Kate had managed everything else, stepping up when no one else had.

Cade had helped move the next two girls into their dorm two rooms down from Tessa, Kate, Sarah, and Jessica last year. Rachel and Hannah Hallandale were a car moguls twin girls, and both had a pranking streak that rivaled their guardians. Rachel was the artist with the irritable Susntreaker, and Hannah was the slightly less psychotic twin with one of the other Forge revived Bots Sideswipe. The Texan never did see their cars, but he wasn't surprised to hear they were custom painted Lamborghini Huracan LP 620 Super Trofeo. How the hell those two kept hidden was still a mystery.

The human twins' fourth roomate after Carly was Stephanie, who drove everyone nuts since she had clicked with Wheeljack, the other revived Bot, Cade laughed when he found out the inventor/wrecker was a DeLorean. Even after working with and around them for a few years, there were a handful of Bots Max didn't know well enough to describe, they'd taken off soon after learning a little about their new location after the crash. Emily was an Air Force Pilot whose F16 jet Skydive was one of two still working for the US military, Nathan flew with Silverbolt, a C-130 Hercules. And Mirage...no one was really sure where he was...he could literally disappear off the radar.

The last Autobot was going to be first one to arrive after the relocation order had been pulled. Kup was the oldest autobot still alive, already a war veteran when this one started eons ago. He helped keep everyone in line.

All those cybertronians...hiding on earth...Max admitted they hadn't always been in America since they had access to a jet. And he also confessed it was Kate's fault Tessa had met Shane when the girls had gone to the ametuer racing track in just outside of Houston, Tessa had wandered off the talk with the new driver from Ireland while Kate had cheered on a couple of the Bots in their heats.

Which explained why Kate's fuel bill was ridiculously high and how she afforded it with all the racing going on. Both for speed and rough'n'tough races with the off-roading style vehicles. Alien engines came in handy...

Not that they ever cheated, the drivers had to maintain the cover by keeping the Bots within earth limits, making it more of a challenge for them.

Needless to say Shane wasn't going to be pleased when he found out who he'd been losing to in a couple races, and that all of the Bots had been invited to the Rosewood Classic Championship, the biggest amatuer race in the international league. Hot Rod had brought in the gold.

Max's impromptu introductions ended about the same time First Aid and Hoist did with repairs on Prime, the clock having hit two am already. Cade stretched tiredly as he and the RN shucked the coveralls while First Aid made sure Prime was still able to transform.

The ride to the surface in the beat up old tow truck was quiet, coffee's buzz had worn off awhile ago and Cade's head was still reeling over the new information. If Prime and his team had struggled to hide from Cemetery Winds and other humans on the lookout for them, how had these bots remained so safe that they'd entered in races and lived 'normal' lives without moving constantly?

Hoist didn't let Cade out right away as he pulled right up to the house, Max exiting the cab with a yawn.

The two truck shook slightly with a soft sigh as the two of them watched Prime lay back against the hill, optics dimming rather quickly as he slipped into recharge.

"I know what you're thinking...and to be honest I'm not really sure, pure luck mostly has kept us alive, and we've all had our share of close calls. But that didn't stop us from trying, from keeping going and keep fighting."

Cade nodded once as he listened, Hoist settled on his shocks further, weariness edging his tone as he spoke while opening the door. "You're lucky, being able to run from those soldiers like you did, some of ours managed that too, the fighting never ends though, hasn't for so many of us for so long, but we have won some."

The front door opened for him, Cheryl waiting with towels for Cade to get cleaned up before sleeping. Hoist's final words made him pause, unable to turn around as they sunk in.

"...and we've lost some..."

Cade knew he didn't mean just battles.

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><p><strong>Tada! Sorry for the wait, couldn't decide how to do this one...as a bonus it's a long one!<br>**

**Thank you lovely readers and review please!**


	18. Cause it's all misunderstood

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Also I do not own the two songs mentioned in this chapter, but both are really good.**

**To _PoisonIvy_ _Kitten, 3016, cdbt841, AyanoZonurai_, and_ MaddySan5926_: Thank you for the faves and follows!**

**To _Shadow Kat_: Falling over? Well get back up and keeping reading my dear! :) Thank you!**

* * *

><p><strong><strong>Important Author's Note: I ask you to go the glorious Tube of You or somewhere and listen to Lemonade Mouth's "<em>More Than a Band<em>" before reading this chapter, it will make more sense if you hear the song. Please and thank you!****

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eighteen<br>**

**Cause it's all misunderstood  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

Kup hadn't arrived by the time Cade woke up that afternoon, the house quiet as he rose to find coffee and check on Optimus.

The mech was still asleep outside the house, face plates smooth and undamaged and helm armor back in place finally, he'd honestly looked a little odd without it.

Cade was careful to keep the screen door from banging as he left the house to find everyone, a handful of humans and holoforms were in the "mud ring", others in the horse arena with cattle tied with rope halters along the fences while they were groomed enough for sale. That meant combing out tails so burrs were no longer stuck in the hairs and washing off the mud. Huffer was sitting parked by the gates, a livestock hauling trailer hooked up and ready to go as his engine hummed softly. Cade assumed it was Carly leaning over his radiator as she refilled the reservoir and part, checking the caps twice before hopped down.

Was still a little weird to see the folded down hood shut itself with a sharp click.

Connor waved from where he was throwing hay bales from the barn up into Ironhide's bed, it was mostly guys doing that as they had the best arm strength and reach to pitch the bales up to Ironhide's holoform on the bed or Kate and Tessa on a flat bed trailer to stack the bales to move. Judging by how they were doing it, Cade assumed someone had bought a load of hay from Cheryl and paid extra to deliver.

Meaning that night would be spent at the local bar for some decent food and drinks, the cattle were being loaded up now and would be off and gone to the auction house within half an hour. The cash would be in the bank by five that evening.

The last time a truck load of cattle had been sold it had taken Cade and Cheryl three hours to catch the animals alone, least to say having the extra hands made a world of difference.

Notably absent besides the still sleeping Prime were Crosshairs and SIC Prowl, who Cheryl was supposed to introduce to Cade now that he was allowed back to the farm again.

Time to go a walking.

xxx

The two mechs were back in one of the far pastures, monitoring the blue ATV racing around like a hellion on one of the hills. Cade rode the red one closer to the pair, not wanting to fully disturb them.

"Been meanin' ta talk to someone mate...the info dump didn't covah enough as it is, let alone what's going on with Prime."

Prowl nodded, motioning for Crosshairs to continue.

The paratrooper sighed heavily, accent thick as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Somethin's wrong with Prime, and it's not just the parasite...or the systems damage, or lack of energon or whatever...ever since Chicago and getting thrown out of NEST and all he's shut himself down from everyone, and not just the humans we've been able ta trust, but us Bots too...he wouldn't talk to us after Savoy first found him in Texas on the farm, he wouldn't say a word about nothin' after Lockdown had a hold of him...he's clammed up tighter than a driller on a coronite deposit..."

Prowl's tome was cold and analytical, but then again Cade had first thought Crosshairs' was the same way, now he could hear the genuine concern in the black and white mech's voice, "Are you suggesting Prime's mental state is unfit for duty? Aside from his physical health?"

"I'm sayin' someone other than those of us who've been around him lately needs ta get him ta talk or somethin'; the Boss is gonna crack and it's not gonna me a pretty sunset but a fraggin' supernova cascade!"

A nod in confirmation was his reply, Prowl sighing through his vents loudly as his door wings shifted. Arms crossed, he stood quiet for a moment, optics trained on the distant hills while Crosshairs shifted uneasily.

"My thanks for informing me of this, it is beneficial seeing as I have not spoken with Optimus as of yet, I will relay this information to Ironhide and Kup, and will keep you posted if you wish as to the results if we are able to aid the Prime."

Crosshairs shrugged it off, "Don't matter, we'll all be able to tell if you succeed or not, his damned EM fields are clamped so tight what one does get off him is downright horrible. Just wish we could have done something sooner...Prime's losing it and there's just about nothing we can do."

xxx

Cade was right, the bar ended up providing supper that night, especially because the plan for a barbeque were shot down when it started down pouring, the rain almost deafening on car roofs as they reached the small establishment. The bartenders knew the Bots' holoforms well enough to know who got sodas and who got anything alcoholic, letting the liquor flow to those able to handle it. A couple got into drinking games, egged on by the younger adults unable to join them.

Watching Hound lose to the definitely smaller Mia was rather entertaining. Chromia was a piece of work, short, well built woman with fire red hair and deep brown holoform eyes, one of the few able to change the color of the irises, she was well loved and feared among the mechs. It was obvious she was Ironhide's from the start. She dressed in black boots, black pants, and black leather jacket that clung to her over the pale blue tube top peaking out, with Ironhide all in black as usual they were a well matched pair. Cade was pretty sure her top matched Ironhide's eyes on purpose.

Optimus remained sitting at a side table alone with little interaction with the others, nursing a whiskey glass slowly as he observed silently. Rachel and Blaster had taken over DJing the bar for the night, and the artist was currently singing with just about everyone else some pop song Cade couldn't place. Kate was with Jessi, Tessa, Amy, and Nathan at their own table near where Cade sat with Cheryl and David, and Prime's single table. The Bots frequently wandered over, laughing and jesting with the "boss" as Kate was more often that not being called. Jessi handled introductions, giving Tessa a simplified version of what Max had given Cade the night before.

Something about Prime's very being led him to be left alone most of the time, at least once from each Autobot, they greeted him respectfully, making him aware of their presence and some of the braver ones introducing their "teammate" or "partner" to him, receiving a stiff nod in response, but none openly moved to speak with him, to make him part of the evening, it was almost depressing until Ironhide had openly asked Prime to join him at the barn and had been shot down rudely.

It was easier to leave him be.

How in the hell Sarah convinced a few others to start Karaoke was a mystery, but enough of them were buzzed to agree and even join in.

It was a fact that some Autobots could sing worse than dying frogs.

At some point Hound got up on stage, his "_Drink to That All Night_" from Jerrod Niemann getting the floor stomping with everyone's boots. Cheryl must have been plastered as she was up dancing beside him, laughing hysterically when he spun her around to the music.

Soon enough other people in the bar were up dancing as the night wore on, Cade joining in a couple times when first Tessa then Cheryl pulled him on to the floor.

The entire time, Optimus didn't move from his seat, as he leaned on the table in front of him. A quick inquiry to the waitress working those tables revealed he'd drank only a couple drinks, but that didn't encourage Cade as he returned to his seat.

"Kate's turn!"

Whoever had belted out that demand was met with laughter, and not just the bots and their partners, Cheryl and Kate were known well enough in the tight knit farming community to know this wasn't something you took lightly.

Kate shook her head as others began begging her to go on, Nathan even standing up to join her when someone called out a duet.

It wasn't until an older gentleman came over with a guitar and a soft smile did she stand up, waving down the half drunk cheers. The man patter her should as he took her chair while she climbed the stage, settling on a stool someone brought up. Nathan was checking the piano's wiring while Kate tuned a string on the Acoustic, smirking as the amp crackled when turned on.

"Ok since you guys won't shut up already...this is Lemonade Mouth's "_More Than a Band_"..."

The first quiet moments were only broken by the guitar, and Cade glanced over when Ironhide had gone and leaned down to the newly arrived gentleman. It wasn't until the tough guy persona faded enough in that moment did Cade realize the casually dressed holoform was none other than Kup. The gentle smile cracking even Drift's stoic mask when he nodded to the Autobot Elder.

Kate's singing was usually loud and full, something that just came from her like a roar, her passion poured into it even if she was just singing while cooking or working.

This was different, it wasn't from her heart, but her soul, gentle and soothing as he eyes met each of the bots, or tried to as some wouldn't look at her as the words truly hit home.

"..._I can't pretend, to know how you feel...  
><em>_...but know that I'm here, know that I'm here_..."

Even as Nathan joined in, the words weren't just heard but felt.

It only took until the second chorus for others to join in, their voices just as soft as it didn't need to be loud for this. The only ones singing though were the humans who were partnered with a bot, even those not actually "matched" were focused on someone. Now it made sense why Leo was sitting with Bumblebee, the joking smile only in place for the scout, and why Tessa had insisted on Crosshairs sitting near her table...hell Sue had flown in last night to see Joshua and was currently with Drift at Max's table.

Yes, the government had insisted on each Bot having a human partner for liability reasons, and for automatic transportation, but it was still a two way street. The human had a friend and vehicle that was a kick-ass alien robot...

The bots had someone to rely on and be there when needed...

The music died off the with the voices, the guitar barely humming as Kate shifted, the stage light reflecting a soft glimmer of the tears on her face and she wasn't the only one if you looked around the room.

"..._reach for my hand,__'cause it's held out for you..._  
><em>my shoulders are strong,<em>  
><em>but you can cry on them too...<em>  
><em>Everything changes but thing is true,<em>  
><em>...understand<em>..."

Her voice wavered, but Cade wasn't looking to her or even Tessa who was smiling gently as she hugged Crosshairs next to her. His eyes were on Prime, who'd all but folded in on himself, one hand in a fist on the table, the other gripping the whiskey glass tightly as his eyes remained shut to keep from losing it.

"_We'll always be more than...a band_."

xxx

Driving back to the farm was fun, just about everyone had to do a blow test for David or Prowl, Cheryl was too far gone to be of much help, she had every right with two weeks vacation after getting into a stand off at gun point and getting a grazing on her thigh. Buzzed humans were denied key access, and Bots who blew over a .28 were not allowed to turn on their driving computers and were required to turn over control to their partner. Which is why Cade was driving a rather mellow Crosshairs back to the farm just ahead of Prime.

The bunkhouse had been cleaned enough those needing a bed or whose bot was too out of it to be safely functioning could crash for the night. Usually, only half actually stayed on the farm at night, most had family within an hour's drive, twenty minutes with a bot driving.

It was rather satisfying to park and let Crosshairs slip into recharge, knowing more than one bot would be swearing just as loud as a few of the humans would be when David set off his new air horn he discreetly showed Cade after the two had gotten Cheryl into bed, or at least onto it as she'd adamantly refused to let them touch her quilts, it was easier to let her collapse on the mattress and take her boots off.

Kate and Prowl were checking who was on watch for the night, the cop car being the one alongside Perceptor to be out on patrol for a few hours. Tessa and the others were in bed by the time Cade and Kate made it back to the house. Kup handed over the guitar case, smiling as Kate waved goodnight and she and Cade headed inside.

...

Optimus didn't move as a worn metal servo rested on his shoulder plates, nor did he turn to face the mech he had considered like a mentor after Sentinel went missing, and even before then as a new Prime forced into starting a war that would destroy everything.

The servo rubbed gently, disappearing after a moment to lightly tap Prime's chin to get him to meet the old optics.

Kup just looked at him for a moment, seeing more in those few seconds than anyone could ever tell him. A soft nod was all Prime received as the old mech stepped back, turning to watch as the dark skies rumbled once more, the rain had stopped as they'd driven home, and was now seeing to unleash itself once more, this time with storm worthy rage.

"You know where to find any of us should you have need lad. None will ever turn you down."

With that the mech left him there in the front yard, sitting against the swaying oak tree as the wind began to howl. Someone thinking clearly would have moved, gotten into shelter, it took rain falling for him to realize this. An empty shed was open and waiting for him as the rain began to drench everything in it's path. Thunder roaring ominously as lightning cracked across the skies. Soaked, cold, and exhausted, sitting alone in the rather dull shed didn't help matters. Kup had gone to Red Alert's usual spot to keep the security director company as he sat vigil with monitors for the night, door shut firmly against the rocking winds. The others were all down in the Ark, safely resting away from the storm, even those on watch or patrol had shelter and company during the storm.

Nothing exposed was able to escape the cold rain, nothing burned that night except icy winds that would whip tops of trees around like they were blades of grass. The drenching water smothered anything in its path, putting out even the strongest fires so not even the strongest of sparks could survive.

xxx

The house was silent when the slow, unsteady footsteps came to her door, it wasn't closed, like she'd told all of them...when they needed her the door would always be open.

The visitor stood in the doorway, silent and unmoving as she flipped through her notes for her big paper, working best at night while everything was quiet. Her pen scratched across an already covered notebook page as she worked, patient to the end with the figure in her doorway.

She finally turned when what should have been silent breathing hitched suddenly.

It didn't surprise her, eyes were the windows to the soul, and the one before her was breaking.

Kate was just glad she was there to pick up the pieces...

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><p><strong>Wrote the ending of this before anything else...it was stuck in my head and driving me nuts!<br>**

**Review Please?**


	19. Well I'll try to do it right

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Nineteen<br>**

**Well, I'll try to do it right  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

Kate didn't bother knowing how long she sat on the floor of her bedroom, gently rocking the holoform in her arms as he clung to her like a lifeline over an abyss. That might as well have been what was happening. The holoform was shaking so bad when she had finally turned around, she was downright surprised they'd made it to her before finally collapsing.

Only years of working with the bots had Kate on her feet when he went down, clinging to her as he broke down in her arms. The only sound was the soft hitches as he cried against her shoulder. Kate didn't care, she'd spent nights with someone screaming at her. At least for everyone else'd sake she preferred the almost deafening silence.

Her hands never ceased gently rubbing, even as the shaking subsided from body wracking to exhausted trembling that was little more than shivering. At one point he tried to pull away from her, flinching when her arms tightened protectively to keep him still.

She didn't let him pull away, shifting so they were both more comfortable. It was damn obvious this had been been building up for awhile, and she didn't mean weeks or even months, years more like it...or even centuries with how down right awful this was. She wasn't surprised when the shaking had stilled for a moment before he had leapt up, rushing out the back door to throw up. Guess alcohol didn't always sit well with holoforms...Kate wasn't surprised either to smell whiskey as she used a towel to wipe his face, letting him lean on her as the rain continued to pour, pounding against them.

Practice had let her slip boots on as she'd followed him outside, making it much easier to lead him back to the shed. The holoform program took a minute to shut down as she closed the heavy sliding door, blocking out the harsh winds that could pierce even the thickest armor. Before vanishing completely, he'd pulled a duffel bag from a subspace pocket, leaving it on his rear wheel cover.

Kate obviously wouldn't fit the clothes meant for a man in the army, but she made do, using the sweatshirt as a towel and rolling up the cuffs of the sweat pants. The t shirt she bunched up with a hair tie, letting her thick hair hang down her back.

His door was open and waiting when she zipped the bag back up, tossing it to the side after pulling on thick socks.

Even his alt form was shaking slightly, the frame vibrating as she climbed in, gently closing the door until the latch clicked. He still didn't speak as she headed to the sleeper, climbing under the old quilt and onto the worn mattress like she'd done so a hundred times.

He shuddered, but the shaking stopped as her warm fingers began to soothingly run along the metal edging of the bed frame, the silver pieces actually made up some of his face plates, the glyphs carved into the metal rough under her finger tips. His sensors locked on her, ensuring she was warm enough, he was exhausted...systems humming softly as they shut down one by one.

The last coherent thought was how her heart was gently beating in time to his aching spark. For once he didn't just shut down, actually falling into peaceful rest as recharge took over.

xxx

xx

xxx

Some mornings Cade woke up and forgot he was in Iowa, still thinking the white, and slightly dusty ceiling above him was the one he'd seen for years after his aunt had passed away and left him the house as a graduation present when she found out Caroline was pregnant and they were getting a court house wedding after commencement.

And some mornings it was damned obvious where he was because of the noise.

Today it was some grumbling about hang overs, others over the work roster Prowl was reading off from the porch, and there were a couple looking confused.

Besides First Aid in the med bay with Silverbolt who had arrived last night, the only ones missing were Joshua and Drift, down in the city. The rest were gathered in the front yard to go over the roster, the bots as holoforms for space sake.

Well...everyone except Kate...and Prime...

Rachel Hallandale popped her bubblegum loudly, sneering as Huffer groaned at the noise. She was sitting comfortably on Sunstreaker's hood, leaning against his holoform as the yellow twin looked to be dozing in the sun.

"Rachel and Sunstreaker, shift seven Tuesday through Thursday, shift six Friday, and shift five Saturday to Monday."

"Gotcha, we'll be in the paint house if anyone needs us or our mad skills."

Blurr snorted, "Mad something alright."

"Hey!"

"What?!"

"Dick head"

"Squishy!"

"Glitch-aft!"

Cheryl growled, "Will you two shut up?!"

They quieted down amongst sniggering, getting sharp glares from Prowl.

"Carly and Huffer-"

"Hauling runs, grain truck, shift four, and lumber load on Wednesday, we know Prowl...by the way when's Kate coming out? She's usually getting trailers ready to load about now."

"Yeah where's the boss?"

"Speaking of boss where's Optimus?"

The resulting chatter didn't surprise anyone, everyone glancing around to search for the missing members.

Prime's comm. channel was shut down, and Kate's phone was still on her bed plugged in and charging. Even her headset was in the house, now it made sense who she was always talking to, it was her own comm link.

Cheryl groaned, rubbing at her temples before stepping off the porch, "Hide, Mia, Cade you're with me, Prowl finish this up and everyone get going on what needs to be done, fuel cards if needed are on my desk."

Kup met them outside a shed Cheryl had had cleaned out to store round bales in for winter stock feeding, the door shut for once. He nodded to them, gesturing to the door and motioning for them to keep quiet.

Cheryl was ready to shove the door open, Cade stopping her when Mia's "eyes" went from brown to blue as she scanned the building, holding Ironhide back when he tried to step forward. She shook her head, going to the door and sliding it enough to duck her head in, slipping inside for a brief moment before exiting with a duffel bag and a handful of wet clothes.

xxx

Cheryl had thrown the soaked clothing in the wash, handing Kup a glass of wine as Ironhide and Cade sat with the older mech at the kitchen table. Mia was content to sit on the counter, while the female cop fixed herself coffee with extra aspirin.

"Well at least we found them."

Ironhide nodded, "That's not the issue, it doesn't matter who sought out who last night, Prime may have gone to her...but this doesn't fix everything, he's too damn stubborn for this to be a quick fix."

"Never said it was going to be."

Kup glanced up to Mia, meeting her gaze with his aged one, his holoform flickered, forearms shimmering metallic for a moment before settling. "What matters know is we do _not_ say anything, at least to Prime. The last thing he needs is us hovering over him, we've been doing that enough because of his health. He knows what he has to do, he knows we're there for him...at this point we can't push him...he let Kate in his cab..."

"Not something he takes lightly..."

Cade looked up from his coffee, "What do you mean? He willingly let us ride-"

Ironhide sighed, "Because you would be dead otherwise, even before Chicago Optimus didn't let people ride with him unless absolutely necessary. Shortly after Mission City a government official and his assistant were riding with him from the air port to our temporary base. The assistant pulled out a gun and shot up his cab, stabbing a knife through his seat. The bullets hit several vital circuits and sensors, the knife was stuck in him for three days until Ratchet could get it out safely...when Optimus is in his alt form, his spark resides tucked under his seat, that's why it's a bench compared to a normal truck's pilot seats. The blade lodged in his spark chamber, forcing a transformation that embedded it further...we didn't think he was going to live...

"The fact that he let her in and not only for an extended period of time, but is still in recharge...and a damned decent one at that...I know he hasn't gotten this deep of rest for decades...Kate's gotten through to him somehow...I just hope it lasts long enough she can help him..."

xxx

She woke up to her bed shaking lightly, rubbing at her eyes as she looked around, resting a hand on the wall beside her. The entire truck was vibrating as she slowly stood up, making sure the quilt was tucked back on the mattress again. Kate was careful to keep her movements gentle and slow as she climbed onto the bench seat, hoping the shift in her weight would stop the trembling. Instead it grew worse, the truck rattling on its frame now as she rubbed the seats soothingly, one hand finding a tear in the leather that healed roughly.

That sent the truck into a transformation, she had barely been able to kick the door open as the cab collapsed around her. Kate hit the ground in a roll, scrambling back as the metal armor and parts slammed into place roughly, the movement jerky and uneven as Prime settled in a crouch. She was about to yell at him to get his attention and cease his erratic movements.

Until she saw his optics.

They were fluorescent white, flashing rapidly as they stared through her, not seeing anything before them.

Prime wasn't awake...

A deep growl started in his chest as he lunged at her, servo missing her as his hip buckled and she rolled clear. By the time he straightened back onto his knees she was well out his immediate way, but was still unable to truly get out. Prime was between her and the door.

...never wake a sleep walker...

Well, this could be bad...

* * *

><p><strong>Tada! Almost kept going but felt it better to split this.<br>**

**Review please?**


	20. This time around

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**To _Shadow Kat_: Thank you!**

**To _Sounduser_: Thank you for the follow!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twenty<br>**

**This Time Around  
><strong>

Xxx _October 2007, Enroute to Hoover Dam__  
><em>

The brightly painted 379 peterbilt truck with sleeper cab cruised down the highway at a relaxed seventy-four miles per hour, engines running smoothly as it maneuvered in traffic professionally.

To anyone on the outside it was just another truck hauling a plain trailer to its next job.

On the inside it was the Autobot Commander Optimus Prime.

He and his remaining Autobots were enroute to their temporary base at Sector Seven's former residence within Hoover Dam. Having left the military base nearest to Mission City yesterday after negotiations and arrangements had been made for the Autobots' existence on Earth.

All highly classified and hidden behind strict protocol on both sides.

This thinly placed alliance was already on edge, survivors of Mission City were struggling to go with the government cough out of the truth, some even going after the military base in retaliation for the destruction. The Autobots were being moved so to not strain things further and remain inconspicuous to the outside world.

Little hard when they consisted of a bright yellow 2008 Camaro, a neon green Rescue Hummer, a matte black GMC Topkick with smoke stacks, and a flame painted 379 peterbilt.

Somehow they managed, and as the gates to the temporary base opened, the idling truck's frame vibrated faintly, stirring the two passengers from their thoughts.

Secretary of Defense John Keller merely stretched within the cab, careful to avoid bumping the pedals by his feet. His assistant, Eli Jameson, however shifted nervously, outright flinching when the massive diesel engine revved to keep from stalling as they waited for the soldiers to finish checking the weight of the trailer to ensure safety on the dam itself to cross into the base.

Keller didn't pay attention to his assistant, speaking out the window to a private as they were cleared to proceed into the base. The peterbilt was the last to enter, moving slowly and cautiously as it maneuvered the large trailer into the small receiving area. Several men were out with the glow sticks commonly used for directing air traffic, now they were helping the truck turn almost completely around and back the trailer into the narrow loading dock aisle.

The humans had to hand to him, Prime hadn't even been on Earth for two months and this was the first time ever hooked to a trailer, wasn't doing half bad.

The truck's mirrors extended past the width of the dock, once the trailer was lined up and halfway in, Prime was blind to how far back he was pushing it, relying solely on the soldiers to keep him steady.

"I have to say Optimus Prime, you drive better than even the most veteran truckers I've seen out on the road. You sure you haven't done this before?"

His light tone earned a soft, but deep chuckle, Prime's voice contained to the radio as he inched backwards.

"I am positive Mr. Secretary, as much of this planet is, this is entirely new to me."

"Well, you're doing a bang up job."

Prime didn't reply for a few seconds, researching the phrase before humming softly. "Ah, thank you."

"WHOA!"

The yell came two seconds too late as the trailer hit the back of the lading dock, knocking forwards and against the hitch plate. Prime grunted, easing his brakes slowly as the soldier in front had him roll forward to take the pressure off. Another pair rushed to set the trailer parking brakes and drop the trailer legs.

"I wish to amend my earlier statement Mr. Secretary, this is _very_ new to me."

Keller chuckled and stepped down from the cab, heading to speak with William Lennox and Autobot Weapons Specialist Ironhide as they waited off to one side.

Jameson handed the scretary's bag and his own briefcase to the ensign waiting at his door, turning and crouching on the floor to get a paper that had slipped from his fingers earlier.

The alien truck was humming softly, with power and with life.

Life his family would never have, life they'd been denied by these monsters when in Mission City.

His jaw set, he pulled the small handgun he was required to carry when traveling with the Secretary of Defense from within his suit jacket. Protocol dictated he hand it over to the waiting ensign for security purposes.

Instead he emptied the clip into the truck's dashboard.

...

Ironhide jerked as his Prime started yelling, gunshots ringing out from his cab as the flailing seat belts tried to safely restrain the human inside. The truck started rocking on his wheels, shaking trailer violently as two tires spun uselessly, sending smoke into the air. Soldiers climbed in, diving past the seat belts as they went limp, struggling to apprehend the man.

One soldier fell back out, clutching his side where blood was already coating his shirt and hands from a stab wound.

Armor plates began to shift and buckle as Optimus outright screamed...this wasn't anger or confusion, he was in downright _pain_.

A single shot rang out amidst the noise, the soldiers pulling the now incapacitated attacker out of the cab and rushing back from Optimus as he lurched forward, breaking the trailer hitch post and bending his own fifth wheel as he transformed way too quickly to be safe.

Prime choked as he buckled, servo clawing at chest plates. He started tipping, groaning as Ironhide caught him as he collapsed.

Someone had the sense to go find Ratchet, the siren's echoing loudly off the rock walls as he rushed to them.

Ironhide didn't think he was going to get there in time...

xxx

William Lennox and Robert Epps stood with the two civilian kids on the catwalk attached to the wall of what had become CMO Ratchet's med bay. Several shipping crates made up a crude operating table as the medic rushed to seal all the leaks draining something into Prime's chest.

The bullets had pierced several dashboard instruments, breaking the sensors and circuits they were attached too, shutting the related parts down. The metal projectiles then proceeded to ricochet around violently, tearing through hoses in several places.

Ratchet's arms were coated in a blue liquid, similar inconsistency to antifreeze but not as clear. It took the medic hooking up a container of the stuff like an IV into Prime's ankle did the captain figure out it was basically blood.

Optimus was losing a lot of it...

The medic stepped back after another half an hour, having been working for a solid three before that to get the leaks closed off. He grimaced as he rotated a wrist back into place, the joint squealing with the intrusion of the liquid.

Mikaela Banes climbed over the cat walk railing, dropping to the work counter below and heading to where the medic was grabbing a set of pliers.

"Let me do that, your fingers are slipping as it is from being covered in..."

"Energon...our blood and fuel...and no, your organic skin will burn and melt if touched by this."

"Then I'll wear cover-alls, it doesn't eat through thick cotton, I already had to fix a hose on Bumblee and my rags were fine."

Ratchet growled softly, not consenting until the teen took a rag nearby and wiped off his fingers nearest to her, holding up the rag by its corners to prove her point.

Reluctantly, he agreed, scanning her to make sure she was properly covered in the coveralls with the cuffs taped to her boots and sleeves taped over the gloves. Sam tried and failed to pull her hair back into a ponytail to tuck down her collar, giving up as Will stepped in, having experience from helping Sarah.

The medic never took his optics off her as she worked the bullets out from where they were embedded in bits of metal and parts, wincing as she took in the extent of the damage. Ratchet read her silence like a book, glancing up the other three humans as well when he spoke.

"It's not as bad as it looks, at least this part, the main issue was sealing the leaks before he completely drained out, one of the sensors damaged was the fuel pump main, the pumps were not turning off even though they were supposed to is fuel pressure dropped below a certain point. He's stable, just a bit messy right now. Going to be the pit to clean off the energon everywhere though."

"Got any cleaner? I'm here anyway and can get in places you can't easily, put me to work Doc."

Ratchet let a smile grace his face plates, turning to the chemicals the base had available at the moment for him to examine, scans checked their chemical makeup, pulling out a small squirt bottle and handing it to her as she placed the bullets in his palm.

"Seriously? 409?"

"Chemical composition is that of energon solvent, never would have expected that."

"Cool."

They worked in silence, Ratchet cleaning what he could reach, and Mikaela scrubbing at everything else, her rags were changed out more frequently to avoid her gloves becoming soaked with the blue blood, the medic wasn't taking any chances.

Sam watched as four new containers of the engeron were IV administered through Prime's ankle, only because his wrist sensors for such action had been damaged as well. Optimus' systems were sounding better by the time Ratchet disconnected the last one, cleaning and closing off the port as he sub spaced the container for later.

Lennox moved away from them when his phone rang, voice low as Ratchet turned to grab a part off to replace a broken one.

"Knife? What knife? No, he's only pulled bullets out...Stabbed where?"

The medic glanced up, optics not really taking in Lennox as he turned back around, "Hey Ratchet...where would a knife be in Prime now if it was stabbed in while in his cab?"

"That depends, what did it stab?"

Lennox relayed the question, pausing as the other person answered.

"About the center of his bench seat, straight through the leather."

Ratchet dropped his part, its bang echoing loudly in the med bay as Mikaela jumped out of his way when he lunged forward, ripping off a metal panel over the center of Prime's chest.

Sam recognized the location as the medic jerked back, not touching the black handle jutting out from the case surrounding the blue and crackling energy.

"His spark..."

xxx

xx

xxx

He woke to pain, deep gnawing pain that sapped his strength. Everything hurt...and not just the burning that had resided deep in his spark ever since they'd lost the Allspark as it was destroyed by merging with Megatron's own. His entire frame throbbed as he lifted his head enough to ascertain his location, grimacing as he tried to move his arms to push himself up.

The agony rippling down his neural wiring alone was enough to make him gasp and lay back down, the pair of servos shoving didn't help matters either.

Ratchet glared as Prime met his gaze, face plates showing heavy frustration, and relief.

"Wha-"

He grimaced as he coughed heavily, helm rolling to one side as Ratchet held a small glass of energon out for him, a stiff bit of hose serving as a straw when Prime's servos shook when he tried to reach for it.

Small sips were all he was able to handle before his tanks cramped, sending him laying back with a groan.

"Easy there...not so much at once."

"That? Was nothing..."

Primus that hurt, his legendary strength was just...gone...

"The injuries you sustained in Mission City and any damage from planetary entry were only worsened with this, your systems just crashed with this attack, had to completely replace your right main arterial line, it was shredded beyond repair. The bullets themselves did minimal damage, your rocking around like a pair of petrorabbits sent things knocking in ways they're not meant to."

"That explains the pain..."

His vocoder ached, a sharp spike in the pain level making him grimace as he gave up and shut it off temporarily.

"Yes, well most of it, I'm still building you a new secondary neural manager, having to rapidly adapt earth materials to fit our needs is a bit of a challenge, I can't turn off some of the sensors until it's complete, there's nothing there to do so."

He nodded, wincing as even that hurt, a servo went to his chest, digits running along the torn armor edge in confusion as he tried to sit up, bending his chest slightly.

The base would probably have been glad he'd shut off his vocoder, his roar would have shaken the mountain itself. Ratchet wrapped his arms around his shoulders, adjusting his own EM field when it melded with the Prime's, pulling away the raging pain and passing over soothing reassurances. Optimus' servos gripped the thick armor over the medic's forearms, optics clenched shut as he rode out the pain.

It took several minutes for him to calm down enough to lie back down when Ratchet began to move him, still cringing occasionally as he was lowered back against the berth.

"Now will you ever learn to not move abruptly after waking up in my med bay? You remember what happened?"

:Yes. Jameson, started shooting, something...went through my seats, then the pain became uncontrollable and I have no recollection of the rest...:

"Correct, he stabbed a knife through your seats after stabbing a soldier who'd come to your aid, we assume he was aiming for someone else but missed. Pit forsaken glitch jammed it deep enough that it nicked your spark chamber, your transformed and slammed it in there farther. I had to build a containment field from slagging earth parts just to operate and get it out. The weld is still fresh."

:How long was I out?:

"Just over a week."

He grimaced, :What of Secretary Keller? Those meetings...:

Ratchet chuckled, rubbing his shoulder reassuringly, "The Secretary was and still is very understanding, especially since I had to ban almost everyone from in here while I was operating for safety and containment purposes, the assailant has been tried already for his actions, the U.S. President himself is coming here to meet you once you are able...and that does not mean sit up again Prime!"

He grimaced, giving up after only making it a few inches. :Ah...no use, can't hardly move.:

Ratchet rolled his optics, lightly flicking Prime's helm in response, "Like I said, the weld is fresh, it won't be set properly for at least another day, and even then you will be compromised for at least two orns I mean one earth month slag, that's going to take some getting used to."

He smirked, nodding in understanding as he began to lose his ability to keep his optics open, motioning with a servo for the medic to continue, exhausted to his core already, his Chronometer read he'd only been awake for about an hour.

"The interior of your cab, especially your seat will permanently hold the scars from this. The faux leather will always hold the gash from the knife, even when we leave this planet you're frame will bear the marks to the next alt form."

:If we leave it...:

Ratchet shrugged, accepting the statement with silence as Prime's systems settled down into recharge.

"I will say this though, I wouldn't let anyone back into your cab for awhile, your's is too vulnerable."

:No...I won't be allowing that...:

His processor shut down with one resounding thought.

Never again...

* * *

><p><strong>Review please? Wanted to give background to Prime's reaction in the last chapter and lead into the next one as it develops.<strong>

**Thank you!**


	21. Let's start over

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Warning: Swearing**

:Comm link:

_"Radio/Bee's Lyrics..."_

**To _Shadow Kat_: He's not quite in a hugging mood...will though share the love! Thank you!**

**To Vege-chan: Thank you for the fave and follow!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-One<br>**

**Let's Start Over  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

She was silent and still on the outside, but her racing heart wasn't so sure of that. Now would be a damn good time to panic.

Stupid of her to leave her headset in the house...

Optimus growled, the sound low and threatening, but she could hear a moan buried beneath it. His back arched as he tried to straighten, clocking his helm on the metal girder that supported the rafter framing.

Kate couldn't bite back the shriek she let out as she dived out of the way when Prime's arm swung at her, narrowly missing her back by less than an inch.

Prime groaned, this time sounding more normal as he shuddered, frame shaking as it slumped to one side, braced on his arm as the other went to his face. He rubbed at his optics, grimacing as they snapped with static before the white went out completely. Dull gray blue took over after a moment, shutters blinking as they tried to focus, finally resting on Kate backed against the side wall, watching him carefully.

"Katherine...what...oh no..."

Kate looked around confused before seeing his concern, a small line of blood tracking down her ripped sweat pants from her bloodied knee. Prime's frame shook as he covered his face plates with a servo. She sighed, standing and moving closer even as he flinched away from her.

"Look at me..."

Optimus didn't shoulders slumped in defeat as he resigned himself to what he'd done.

"Dammit Prime! Look at me!"

He visibly jerked as her hand slapped the side of his helm to get his attention, optics dull as they were forced to meet her gaze.

"You didn't do this, you didn't even touch me, I jumped out of your cab and rolled, I've always landed on my knees...just forgot this time I didn't have padding."

He still looked away, intakes shaking as she stepped back a pace.

"You were attacked in your cab by a human at some point huh?"

His frame stiffening was her answer and she turned away, grabbing her boots and actually tying them on this time.

"Transform."

"What?"

Primus his voice sounded bad...

"Transform, you're getting out of here even if I have to make you."

His optics narrowed but he complied only so she would actually open the shed door she was leaning against.

The second he had enough clearance his engine roared as he floored it, trying to get past her.

Now what Prime didn't know was Kate had experience with semi trucks, big ones especially so his steering jerked wildly on the gravel when she ran and jumped, grabbing a hold of his mirror bar and swinging onto the truck nose, gripping the windshield wipers to stay steady.

"Open up!"

His answer was to swing a hard left, tearing down the driveway as fast as he safely could on the muddy road, man he was out of practice.

Her eyes narrowed, glaring at the light bar on top of the cab, knowing that's how he could see her.

"Open up or I'll make you!"

Prime didn't reply, engine growling angrily as she glared, one hand gripped the horn on his cab bar, the other did something to the heel of her right boot, he didn't care as he gunned it harder, ramming the driveway gates and snapping one of them clean off. Luck or timing kept the metal from popping a tire, his undercarriage was scraped up enough by it as it was.

Kate shrieked angrily, smacking his windshield as he fishtailed wildly as he pulled onto the highway, heading South to the junction to the back highways where others wouldn't see them.

Something flashed in his peripheral vision as Kate swung her right boot at his driver's side window, he didn't get a lock on it before it dug into the crack where the window met the door. The glass held, the thin metal at the edge caught whatever was attached to her boot. Hurt like the Pit as she wrenched it out, tearing a gash in the door.

He roared, rage that had been building in his spark ripping out as he pushed his speed even harder.

She twisted around as he growled, the feral sound adding to the deep noise of his engines under her feet. She swung her leg again, and this time he flicked his door out to meet it. Only the full force of the kick wasn't aimed at the window, this time her heel went down, scraping his hood and lodging the metal attachment in his door hinge.

Rather amusing ingenuity to keep it stuck open as she gave his bar lights a cocky smirk before climbing in the cab while she had the chance. The wrenching sound his door made as he forced it shut wasn't pleasant, but locking the doors on his intruding passenger were, as was denying her the satisfaction of seat belts.

Kate didn't seem to notice, fixing her boot on her foot as she gripped the steering wheel to remain sitting upright when his sharp turn onto the next road almost sent the entire truck tipping.

"What is your problem?!"

Optimus ignored her, just as he ignored the CB radio just about screaming with the transmissions coming in. Kate kicked it, popping it loose and disconnecting some of the wires in one good hit.

Prime had just about resigned himself to her presence in his cab as he drove, and then Kate changed tactics, or maybe she'd been planning it...but Prime's entire frame just about seized up when her hands flew to his wheel and gear shift, feet slamming on his clutch and brake as she forced him to down shift rapidly. He dropped back to a more sane speed, left to climbing the road's hill much calmer than he'd taken the last one.

His neural wires were on fire in reaction to her touch, codes screaming at him to get her to stop. He fought her control, but her hands kept things from moving, even as he sent a shock up the gear-shift to her hand.

"Fine you aft-head...gonna act like a dumb glitch I'm going to treat ya like one!"

Prime cried out as she floored it, jumping gears almost too fast for his transmission to handle, making him stall slightly and jerk forward as the power flooded his frame. He growled, trying to wrench control from her, instead she swung his wheel hard, tires squealing and his back end flailing as he hit the gravel road at the bottom of the hill. Momentum was against him, he was too busy making sure he stayed upright to try and fight Kate like this.

"Fuck you."

Kate snorted at his rather pathetic insult, voice sounding out of breath as she raced the hills, dust swirling madly behind them, the cloud blocking anything in her mirrors.

"Frag you! That was weak and you know it, you wanna insult me try harder Prime."

His growl shook the seat, vibrating her core, "Slutty bitch."

"Petro-drone."

"Bastard."

"Knock Off."

"Outcast."

"Reject"

"Idiot fleshie."

"Half-clocked ground pounder!"

"Worthless human!"

"Rusted out pile of slag!"

"Liar!"

"Microchip!"

"Betrayer!"

"Coward!"

Prime should have stopped a long time ago, the next word to fly out didn't even register in his processor, the only one screaming at him was the one he hadn't wanted to hear.

"Heartless!"

Kate shut up at that, slamming the brakes so hard her legs were shaking with strain as she forced the clutch down and dropped from the hardest gear to neutral in a instant. Prime starting spinning, skidding several yards on the gravel road when she yanked the parking brake into place. Even before he came to a complete start, Kate kicked at his door, forcing it open otherwise she'd have dug her left boot's metal attachment into the fragile interior paneling.

She growled, staring at his headlights defiantly, "Say that to my face, or are you just a coward."

He gave into her demand, transforming to crouch in front of her, his fist slamming into the ground with enough force to leave craters. Kate rocked on her heels and stayed standing.

"Heartless."

Kate glared, arms crossed as his face leaned down nearer to her. Her silence bugged him, his intakes heaved in an attempt to cool his systems, engines still rumbling but beginning to settle down.

"You really think I'm heartless?"

Her sudden speaking still shocked him even though he could see it when it was going to happen, her tone also surprised him, low and steady, no accusation or really any emotion, just a simple question.

"You have an affinity for upsetting others."

"By keeping things to myself? By hiding others so they remain alive? By not saying everything upfront when it will only cause pain? If that's what you consider heartless then-"

"You have yet to leave me alone...have you not noticed everyone else _avoiding_ me?"

"You have yet to realize that they only do so because you have never let them doing anything else. Eons in a war, around soldiers who've seen things _no one_ should ever have to see, things you've had to endure...drives anyone to their breaking point...me being the first one to ignore your rank and step forward to say "I'm here if you need me"...that's being heartless...I don't get it Big Guy."

Optimus flinched slightly, but didn't look away, sapphire optics meeting her green eyes evenly.

"I watched you at the bar, you tracked us moving around, especially partners, I know you'd have to be blind to see it mattered to the others that they had someone there."

He did turn away at that, optics staring out over the empty fields.

"What do you want from me Prime? I wish I could go back and undo whatever it is that made you hate me so much..."

"I don't hate you..."

Kate sighed, "Then what? I know you don't trust me...I'm pretty sure you don't even like me. What I don't understand is why you came to me last night if you can't stand me."

Prime shook his head, unable to answer as his frame was buffeted by wind gusts, Kate even staggered as the dull breeze turned into quite a hit. Clouds that had dimmed the sunlight turned dark, beginning to release a slow fall of rain. He dropped back into truck form, opening his door for her and warming his cab enough to stave off the falling temperature.

She remained silent as he began driving, still following the gravel roads deeper into the hills and harvested fields.

His radio crackled softly as it came on, the music dull for a moment before lyrics came through clear enough for Kate to hear, and understand.

"_Heavy is the head that bears the crown_..._Trusted, so much that...knock me down...wrong that I've done...what I've become...just killin' it...broken heart...I'll try anything-to drown out the pain_..."

Kate hummed softly, resting her hands on the steering wheel gently, "Drowning the pain doesn't stop it."

"..._I can stop the pain if I will it all away..._"

She sighed, "But is that what you want? To be constantly hiding not just the pain...but everything else..."

"_Don't want to fall asleep-'cause I don't know if I'll get up_..."

"You're right...it's killing you Optimus..."

They were silent for a long while, the only sound was the soft rain on the truck and the low hum of the much calmer engines. Kate never took her hands off the steering wheel, and Prime didn't try to stop her. Her fingers were loosely draped over the leather, the wheel sliding through them without interference. It was soothing, the light touch that she didn't really seem to notice she was doing.

He hadn't realized just how badly he'd been craving someone's touch that wasn't meant to hurt him...

It was about time he took this seriously...not that he hadn't been before, but going on a suicide drive and sinking lower than the average 'con...bit of a wake up call.

"What do I do...?"

His voice was soft, cracking slightly as his intakes hitched. He gave up...engine stalling as he drifted to the side of the road, coming to a stop silently.

Kate let him sit for a moment before straightening in the seat, reaching for the gear shift slowly as she restarted his engine. Prime let her drive, her gentle movements taking him to the next road and back to the regular road, facing South to head back to the farm.

"Start by letting someone...anyone...help you, and not just repairing your systems, you've got to let someone in...talk to them or something...and not just because you need to, but socializing once in awhile won't hurt anything."

Optimus remained silent, allowing her full control as they pulled back on the main highway, several minutes passed before she eased him into the driveway, the gate was out of the way, the bent panels propped out of the way of vehicles.

Kate slowed and parked, turning off his engine with practiced hands before she climbed down, shutting the door gently. Optimus transformed and stood, rolling his shoulders before crouching to Kate once again.

He sighed, optics shuttering as he bowed his head, shoulders slumped and armor limp on his frame.

"...help me..."

* * *

><p><strong>Tada...<strong>

**Review Please?**


	22. I'll try

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Warning: Swearing**

:Comm link:

_"Radio/Bee's Lyrics..."_

**To _Shadow Kat_:...whoops, I think I broke you...Thank you lovely reader and yes "whoa"!  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-Two<br>**

**I'll Try  
><strong>

Xxx _October__  
><em>

Cheryl had to admit, if Kate ever wanted to (and if it was feasible) she could make a fortune being an Autobot therapist. That's how she'd gained a lot of the trust among her team, she'd been there when they'd needed her, not as the leader they'd made her into...but as someone to catch them when they fell.

Their partners were there for them all the time, and once truly finding that one person to be with they'd all been happier, but before those realizations...nights had been rough when the war worn and space travel weary Bots had been forced to stay confined to the farm like prisoners for a couple months.

Kate using her actual bedroom on the second floor was only when her guardian had really needed her, spending the night with her for comfort...or when another Bot needed someone to talk to.

For the longest time the cop couldn't discern who it was, the farmhouse walls too thick for her to tell which Bot was speaking, just able to hear a pair of low voices, Kate's a touch louder than the other.

No silent and just about dead acting vehicles were right by the house either, so no clues there, Hot Rod had been damned easy to tell when he'd gone to Kate since he'd parked right in front of the steps, anyone leaving by the front door had to climb over his hood or the porch railing farther down. Jessi had sat in with them that night, being the one to help the spunky mech the most.

It wasn't until Ironhide and Prowl came asking for Kate because Optimus was still missing did Cheryl put the pieces together, shooing the mechs back out and calling Mia and Amy back from patrol, the next highest ranking Bots and humans would have to manage until both leaders were available. Shouldn't be too hard...

xxx

Optimus didn't fully understand why Kate had dragged him to the only spare guest bedroom of the house until she unlocked the door with a key, the papers and two tablets lying on the desk told of duty rosters, bills, and supply inventories, things all too familiar for him. The dorm like furniture with the thick futon bed and bean bag chair in a corner revealed the room's purpose, Kate and Tessa shared a bedroom because Tessa sleeping in a room alone meant nightmares, Kate did actually have her own room, just didn't always use it.

His holoform gently traced the photo of Kate as a young child in Cheryl's arms on the wall, the two humans leaning against a magenta Kenworth truck.

"Mom hauled cross-country when I was little, she'd gotten the job in high school before I was born and started back up again when I was big enough for a car seat. Child Services pulled me when I was eight, didn't go back to her until I was thirteen and she'd graduated the police academy and had a steady job."

He nodded in understanding, remaining facing the wall as Kate ducked into her closet and changed into her own sweats and shirt, pulling thick socks on over her wet feet.

"Bed."

She hopped on after he slowly laid down, shoving a pile of jeans to the floor and handing him a thick pillow to lean against, the two laying back and staring at the ceiling.

"What..."

"Yeah...guardian thought it was a better idea than just plain white...so we started mapping out the sky from the top of the hill...then that grew old and we took the stars out of the Northeast secondary quadrant of the Southern hemisphere on Delta-A-Eight...projecting it up there was pretty cool...painting it's been a bitch...don't know if I'll get it done without the projection to match the colors-oh!"

Optimus grinned a little as the image above them flickered when he blinked, he adjusted it to match the painted swirls of the nebula that stretched across the ceiling and curved down one wall. The image covered most of the ceiling, stretching out to hit three of the four walls, parts were still in pencil, waiting for time to be completed.

"See now that's cool...using your eyes as projectors...works great til you move your head."

He let out a humorless chuckle, dimming then shutting off the image completely.

They laid there silently, his audio receptors picking up her soft breathing as she lay next to him, a blanket draped over part of her casually.

"Why were you taken from your mother?"

"She had gotten in a few bad deals with a dealer on loads for some company, started into some rough handling that had her in crowds not suitable for a child. She'd also been the kind of teen who'd stolen the beer bottles from her dad when he wasn't looking. Her drinking started again after she'd had to bail on a client to get out of that mess and ended up wrecking her truck, our home at the time, and lost her savings to get a replacement. One of her bosses would watch me on some runs, but a new guy called her in. I got taken two days later."

He was silent, not meeting her gaze as his finger traced the stitching on her quilt. "And your..."

"Foster family? Didn't have one, a couple outright adopted me with the agreement that once my mother met the state's standards for two years she could have me back. They had two boys older than me who became my brothers."

"What of them..."

"Well, it was a military family so we moved a lot, lot of different schools, and everyone had blonde hair except me so I was picked on as the Sergeant's Bastard. The boys protected me, I was the youngest by far, Alexander was ten years older and Gregory eight. Alex was the nerdy science kid who wanted to be in a job designing new tools and weapons for the military, Greg was the slightly awkward brother who just wanted to serve his country honorably."

Kate shifted, propping herself up with an arm and watching his face closely, "Ok, your turn."

Optimus sighed softly, "Familial Unit? My Carrier died when I was basically a teen, two older brothers as well, one a soldier, the other...we fought him two weeks ago."

"Ah...Megatron also known as Galvatron...your father?"

"How about yours?"

"Never knew him, and then the military man didn't care for little girls cuz they didn't belong in the army in his mind so I was ignored...stop avoiding my question."

"Vector Prime...he...wasn't the best at being a Sire, I wasn't supposed to happen...my creation weakened my carrier, he blamed me though never out loud. When the council voted me in as the new prime before the war...he wasn't happy, leaving his seat prematurely to the end of his term."

"Kup mentioned you were one of the youngest primes ever inducted."

"Mhm...they were desperate, Cybertron was on the brink of social and economic collapse and the remaining members of the council were all aged war veterans tired of everything. I was someone no one knew so they thought I'd be good to boost morale enough that no one would notice what was really going on...they wished to use my inexperience to control me."

"New Puppet, old strings..."

"Exactly, they tried for a long time to sway me to their ideals...but the inexperience they desired to use turned against them when I came under the guidance of one of them who wished for nothing but peace..."

"Sounds like the others were a bunch of dicks..."

His eyes flicked up, meeting hers as she continued to listen intently without being pushy.

"My mentor ended up being the worst...turning on me when I needed him...probably the most..." His voice shook as he sighed heavily, Prime rubbing at his face slightly as he looked away, "Sentinel Prime...he taught me everything about my position and the legacy I'd stepped into, and continued to teach and guide me for quite some time after the war began and Megatron and I went our separate ways...when he went missing it was a huge blow to our side...I didn't ever think to see him again, and then...He...betrayed us...long before he'd even left our planet, lying to us about the prospects for the war..."

At that Kate sighed, moving a couple inches closer, and nudging her foot against his leg, "What else...I know that's not all of it..."

Prime sighed, "He lied...to me the most. Didn't take much processing to figure out exactly when he'd struck the deal with Megatron, told me he'd gone to check on some border outpost outside of Iacon, a spot not known for heavy decepticon activity, came back late being chased by seekers...an ambush...for the wrong mechs...Lost several good friends that day...and in hindsight much of the war."

"Prime...that's not what I meant."

He growled, "I was such a fool...so damned naive to think the war could have been turned and ended...so blind to what was right in front of my optics..._Frag!_ The mech I saw as my sire...better than that even...betrayed me for the sake of favoritism...glitch-aft was too fraggin' arrogant and conceited to give a slag about anyone else not under his ideas of priority."

"He sounds like a peach."

Kate's sarcasm made him choke, the snort failing to sound amused and ended up more of a sob, "He...was a bastard...a horrible...horrible..."

Again he cracked in front of her, this time his head found her shoulder when she slid closer, her own head tucked against his shoulder as she held him close. This time Prime's breath hitched, almost hiccuping in strain as he tried to calm down, it didn't work , only making him cough and have trouble breathing. Kate hummed softly, rubbing his back as his hands balled into tight fists.

"Talk to me..."

He did, the words tumbling out faster than he could stop them, not once did she let him go. He told her everything, from his childhood and academy years to his Carrier's death that started the rift between him and his two brothers as they had to rapidly step up in life, on to his Sire's shoving them aside and ignoring the newly inducted Prime and Lord Protector, his own sons...

The council had burdened the new prime with duties beyond his capabilities and time, thinking they could pressure him into cracking...mechs Kate knew such as Prowl and Ironhide had been fresh out of the academy and work force and thrown at Prime to see how he would do with horribly inexperienced staff. The mechs never saw it, they saw a young Prime who had once been a data clerk take his mantle of leadership in stride and excel in its right, they never saw him behind closed doors, at night when he'd finally managed to get away from everyone else. Countless mornings he'd have to force himself to go back...to put on that mask...

Then the fighting with Megatron evolved into the war that had destroyed their planet, and several others...Vehicon had been completely blown up after the Ark had stopped there for supplies and use of the space bridge, only those precious few natives like Blurr who had joined either Prime's ranks or Megatron's had survived. Optimus had made a desperate retreat back to Iacon's ruins, forcing his soldiers to relive horrors of watching their home's destruction once again when the battle that had raged had terminated so many...it had been Prime's only chance to get into the lower vaults to retrieve the First Relics...such as the Forge...

Autobots and Decepticons had fought bitterly during those long days...both leaders desperate to gain the upper hand while Cybertron was still alive. Optimus had retreated to the burning fields of Tyger Pax, hoping the more open ground would aid his troops instead of being crammed into Iacon's ruins, it had been a foolhardy mission...

Megatron's Seeker Armada had been ruthless, dropping bombs and missiles endlessly, not caring if they hit other 'cons as long as Autobots fell with them. Optimus had been in agony, energon draining from his frame from his leg being half gone as he'd struggled to finish setting up the launch pad. Megatron had brutally attacked him, not caring if he hurt his own mechs in the process as long as he made it to Prime before he could finish.

That's when Bumblebee had jumped in, slamming into Megatron with enough force to knock him back. Optimus had scrambled at the chance, hitting the trigger and setting off the launch to jettison the Allspark off the planet. He'd turned to find Bumblebee bleeding from his throat with one of Megatron's claws digging into his vocoder, damaging all the way down to the protoform.

Prime had never felt so much regret than that day as he'd waited with bated intakes along with the rest of the Ark's crew to know if Bumblebee would survive even the night. He did...but was never the same.

The war collapsed around them at that point, driving them off planet completely to hide into the stars to escape Megatron's wrath. After the war lord's disappearance, many autobots agreed with Prime's decision to send out scouts to search for the Allspark, whole teams volunteering to cover the vastness of the galaxies. Bumblebee left the same time as a few others, none had sent back news for centuries...and then Bee's message had raced across the expanse of space like a beacon of hope...he had nothing but coordinates that might have been worthless, but Optimus had jumped at the chance, bringing only a select few to check it out. The Ark had been left in the hands of Prowl's unit, given the task of maintaining the Autobot control over several outposts scattered on resource rich planets or asteroids, and to give protection to the Neutrals also hiding among the stars.

Once on Earth...

Kate knew bits and pieces, but she didn't know of just how damn desperate Optimus had been...how awful it had been to force himself to kill his brother, even if he knew it would have to happen anyway. The decision to destroy the Allspark had been one he had brooded on since he'd first thought of sending it off Cybertron...Megatron wouldn't stop until he had control over it...

What few knew was that the bond between Optimus and Megatron while had been numbed with time, distance, and their own choice to ignore it...it had never been broken...Megatron's death because of the Allspark's merging with his own spark...had hurt Prime badly...the loss of the only hope they'd had for ever returning home...had shattered what little confidence he'd gained back with the knowledge the Allspark hadn't been lost...

And then the human attacked him...

That's when Prime had began to question his ability to lead and his standing in the war...with the remaining 'cons gaining ground and then Megatron's revival, the war truly came to Earth and wasn't going to leave for quite some time. With the Fallen's reveal and then his own death and revival...Optimus had been grasping for anything to pull himself out of the pit that had become his life...his standing against Megatron had grown into a joke in the war lord's optics.

Though the Fallen had been destroyed, and one of the precious few Matrix of Leaderships back in Autobot hands...it was just the beginning, Megatron had fled the battle grounds in Egypt, finally breaking the bond between him and Optimus with such a violent severing that Prime had been incapacitated for several days while on the battleship that had returned them to Diego Garcia afterwards. The others had thought it was because of his death and still healing systems, that had only been part of it. Ratchet had cleared him medically within two days...he hadn't been really able to do much for six.

With the already fragile alliance between humans and Autobots being redone, he'd been able to remain hidden, mostly because they'd been confined to the cargo bay for the first week, and he'd spent much of that time in recharge or hacking into officials' computers to know what was going on. After Egypt and things had settled down enough to the government and NEST to finish it's changing, they'd moved operations to Washington D.C. He and the bots helped keep such cities as the US capitol, New York, Dallas...even Chicago safe from 'cons...

Then he'd gone to Chernobyl.

Finding Sentinel in stasis and reclaiming the pillars for the mobile space bridge had given him hope that they could end this and return to Cybertron. That glimmer of hope had blinded him to the fact that there had been and should have been many more pillars in the Voyageur with Sentinel...Megatron's abrupt appearance within hours of Sentinel back online had only added to the situation. Then the Autobots had been evicted because of Sentinel's betrayal...

It had hurt...not only to be betrayed by Sentinel...but by the people he knew as loyal comrades...friends even...having to trick them and fake their deaths, had been horrible. And then the stupid and reckless run against Chicago..

Prime admitted he'd frozen alongside everyone else at Cybertron's appearance above Earth's atmosphere...and part of him had so desperately wished to stop fighting and just accept the fact this was the only way to return home...

The regret...the guilt...the pain...all of it tore at his spark...he'd killed the one he saw as his father...he killed his brother...destroyed their planet...all to keep Earth safe.

And in return the very soldiers who had fought with them were ordered to turn against them...many refused, but many didn't...in every attack Cemetery Winds had done against him or his troops, he'd recognized some of the men firing the guns...

With the ambush in Mexico leaving him dying, he swore to himself to no longer even think humans could aid him, let alone he ever trust again...he'd fallen into stasis in a run down theater somewhere North of the battlegrounds. And was woken up in a barn with three humans who didn't understand his pleading to leave...or how much pain he was in. Tessa had told Kate a lot of the details between then and getting back to the US after Hong Kong, Prime filled in his side, the deep seated distrust and fear of the humans...losing Ratchet...Lockdown's conviction...it had really hurt...

When he'd left to find the Creators, he hadn't honestly expected to find them, or to survive for very long if he did...discovering the technorganics had been a shock and then to be released...their words had hurt him the most, only adding to the compounding dread that had hardened his spark against everything, creating a thickening wall that had constricted and squeezed until finally crashing. And now...

Prime was utterly and completely spent, emotionally and physically...collapsed against the pillows as Kate lightly rubbed his temple, soothing the headache that had grown worse the longer he'd talked. He was drained, the crying hadn't stopped even as his voice had finally cracked and gone silent.

Neither of them spoke for a long time, eventually the tears stopped and his breathing evened out, yet they remained as they were. His hands gripped the blanket Kate had covered him with when he'd started shaking, trapping in the mechanical heat that his holoform gave off.

She sighed softly, shifting to fully lay next to him so she could look into his eyes. "Now...you have to choose, do you want to keep going like this? Letting all of the guilt you've put on yourself, all the pain...let it build up and crush you again and again..."

His body language said little to nothing, his eyes...they were pained, grieving still...and were downright scared. All he'd known was war...

"I...I can't...I can't do this..."

Kate gave him a gentle smile, "Then c'mon...there's still sunlight left and I have neighbor needing a grain car moved, start trying again Optimus...start _living_."

xxx

Ironhide stood and watched Optimus pull out of the driveway, engines roaring gently as Kate directed him from the driver's seat, heading off to do something. A second later Prime's CB radio and comm link became active, Kate's following and syncing with the farm's systems. The others chatter earned a laugh from the human, her voice calm and even as she began asking of the day's work and how things were going. Optimus jumped in to ask Prowl to email him the duty roster, the prime's voice a lot steadier than 'Hide had heard in awhile. The black mech turned off his own comm when Optimus actually laughed at something one of them said in response to Max relaying repair updates; it eased his spark to know things were looking up.

"Thanks Kate."

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><p><strong>Tada! Review please!<strong>


	23. Do it right this time around

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
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**Warning: Swearing**

:Comm link:

_"Radio/Bee's Lyrics..."_

**To _Shadow Kat_:...lol I'll have to try harder then! *bows dramatically and falls flat on face* Thank you!  
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**To _DesendraRecess, Sherlocked9412, Xireana Zetsubuo, Melony Prime, masha_, and _TF-Moonfire_: Thank you for the faves and follows!**

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><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-Three<br>**

**Do it right this time around  
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Xxx _October__  
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For two days Prime helped Kate haul grain trucks and a load of cattle, Huffer was long overdue for heavy maintenance and out of commission for longer that First Aid had projected, leaving Carly down in the med bay by helping First Aid with the diesel conversion, and Kate doing the farm work and her own job with one truck.

Granted, Optimus was more than twice Huffer's size, resulting in three times the hauling power, meaning while Huffer cruised with a trailer at just barely 55-58mph depending on the day, Prime could easily manage a cruising speed of 75mph with a heavy load. And considering Optimus could keep tabs on all the bots frequencies, boost Kate's comm link, keep track of other trucker's CB channels, and scan the radio waves for cop locations while hauling a long ass trailer loaded a little too full...neither had to worry about speed...

Those two days of them mostly on the road was mostly listening to music, finding Kate wasn't like many of the young adults Prime had encountered, and preferred the older stuff like soft rock and the banjo and fiddle style country she hummed along to while farmer's unloaded combines and tractor grain trucks into the extra long grain cart Prime was hauling. On the times commercials interrupted the music, they talked, Kate relaying antics she'd had to deal with involving the Ark's autobots and Prime doing much of the same, they kept it mostly light and joking, only dipping to the serious topics when they were out on a patrol shift late the second night. Then they discussed why Kate's eldest brother was in prison...mostly black market deals with his technology.

Megatron hadn't been much different, only as a prominent figure in politics and military he'd gotten away with a lot more before getting caught, at that point it was too late anyhow.

xxx

Drift shifted on his pedes lightly, keeping his weight balanced even as his armor flared and shifted, gauging the wind blowing between the hills around the sparring field. Ironhide had run each of them through exercises to see where they were at with weapons skills, Drift and Kup checked over close combat skills. Currently the weapons specialist was taking apart and cleaning the Prime's new gun, the old one already stripped and laying out on the flatbed trailer in front of him.

Optimus was checking over his knight's blade, swinging it idly to get the feel for it, the hilt still unfamiliar in his servos. Kup hadn't needed to test Prime's hand-to-hand skills, he did however insist the prime get assessed and trained on using a completely different sword than what he'd been using for eons. He'd also been required to temporarily disconnect the Matrix so he was actually learning and training versus copying past actions.

The samurai mech sighed softly, one servo on his hip, the other lightly holding the hilt of a Katana that was braced on his shoulder. Irritation and impatience was beginning to grow, but no outward signs of it appeared, merely calm patience as he watched the last prime.

Optimus stepped forward after a few minutes, servos curled loosely around the hilt in what was supposed to be an air of confidence, Drift could see right through it.

The blue and red mech before him was used to being able to monitor his opponent before making the first move, checking for injuries that would slow the opponent, and scanning the area for obstacles that would hinder his own performance. The samurai like bot wasn't going to let Prime do this, knowing his entire fighting style would need to adjust to not only the loss of the energon swords that had been encased in his forearms, resulting in a huge loss of power and enhanced strength in the limbs that now had to support and maneuver a heavy long blade that wasn't connected in anyway to his frame, losing that stability.

Prime didn't even got a chance to blink when Drift lunged, Katana whistling through the air and striking the other mech's side with a harsh clang. Both blades had been dulled and covered with a practice polymer to keep from cutting off a limb or stabbing or decapitating. Drift even twisted his blade so the flat struck instead of the guarded edge. Two impossibly fast swings later Prime managed to block the third, grimacing at the strain in his forearms and elbows to maintain the blade's positioning. This is why they trained...the sparring sessions more educational than practice whenever a new weapon was used. Even a prime had things to learn in the sparring ring.

Drift disengaged, spinning to the left to make Prime step back, and throw off his balance. The next blow hit lower than Optimus expected, knocking him to his knees and then the former 'con kicked his hip, sending him sprawling.

"Do things quickly...you hesitate...you evaluate...it costs you time and chances to strike."

Optimus nodded as he stood, taking only a second to stabilize his equilibrium before swinging the long blade.

Drift blocked it, twisting a little and driving Prime back with a sharp parry.

"He who makes the first bad move, loses the game."

Prime didn't reply, thrusting his sword forward and catching Drift's wrist, shoving the arm to the side and stepping in closer so his weight added force behind the blade now pushing against the Katana.

Again the attempted hit was blocked, Drift stepping to the side with ease and sending Prime tumbling forward into the dirt.

"Fall six times, stand up seven."

The now filthy mech grunted, getting tired of face-planting already...and he'd only been going at it for three point eight minutes.

xxx

_Clang! Crash! *groan*_ Optimus twisted his helm enough to spit out the dirt that had gotten into his mouth, grimacing at the texture on his lip plates and down his throat intakes. The session had gone for over an hour, and Prime was beginning to think it was never going to end.

"Even a fool has one talent." Drift's tone was way to light to be instructional at this point, obviously amused at the session. "And your talent seems to be falling."

Prime groaned as he rolled back to his peds, standing slowly. "Wouldn't it be wise to actually give instructions?"

Drift's sword flew out to smack the side of his helm, sending Prime stumbling to avoid another blow.

"It is better to be ignorant, than to be mistaken...you are assuming your knowledge is sufficient...you are making grievous mistakes."

Optimus glared, glad he'd avoided snapping his mask into place, his intakes were either clogged with dirt or heaving to provide cool air to his cooling fans.

"If my knowledge is insufficient, then teach!"

"To teach is also to learn."

Optimus growled yet again, the mockery this session was becoming was starting to seriously irritate him.

Lunging again he held his own this time for a few minutes before Drift's lighter frame dropped into a roll, legs kicking out at his abdominal plates and knocking him over. His fall turned into a roll and he jumped to his peds with a little strain but maintained his balance.

"If you make a mistake, do not hesitate to correct it."

That took a nano-klick to process, by the time he realized what he'd done wrong, Drift had knocked him flat on his aft.

His roar of mostly frustration rang out against the hills as he tried to bodily tackle the samurai before he could get his blade up to block the charge. Drift's ever bearing calm demeaner and even steadier EM only aggravated him more.

The ex com scoffed, flashing his Katana and tripping the taller mech up with a simple flick of his wrist. Sending Optimus sprawling back to the ground.

"Conquer thy self, and you will conquer the opponent."

The words made Prime sigh heavily, forcing himself to vent out air slowly to cool his systems and regulate his EM field. Drift let him have a moment to compose himself, standing a few paces back as Optimus stood with a soft grimace at his creaking joints.

The peace lasted a whopping two minutes before Drift had knocked Prime on his aft again.

"Would have been better to be given knives...at least Sideswipe's teaching wouldn't have been glitched..."

Now as Deadlock, the mech had been known for intercepting comm. channels, Drift was no different...narrowing his optics at Prime's words that hadn't been meant for his audios to perceive.

"Fools and knives require good handling."

A heavy sigh blew from Prime's intakes, forcing down the anger and frustration that was threatening to further cloud his judgement and actions. Gritting his denta, his jaw strut set tight, he stood and set a stance, holding the sword hilt in both servos. Drift circled him, nodding when his helm turned to watch his movements, but he didn't physically move to do so. This kept his balance poised and conserved energy.

Drift was was just stepping up to Prime's right side to adjust his hold when the Prime made to strike, jaw strut flexing unconsciously as he swung.

Block

Parry

Thrust

...Down...

Prime almost purged at the taste of the dirt down his intakes, coughing violently as the dust blew into his vents before he could close them down.

"Your mouth gives you away...calm your thoughts so your expression does not reveal your intentions."

Instead, Optimus groaned, snapping his battle mask over the lower half of his face plates as he forced himself to stand. At this point, several of the humans had gathered to watch, standing back to avoid getting covered in dirt but watching intently. Kate was among them, standing with Jessi and Rachel, the artist a bit cocky as she stood explaining something to her boss.

He couldn't allow that to distract him, bodily turning so his back was facing them. A minute later after the swords had been ringing through the air and clashing like lightning and thunder, Prime managed the impossible, a move of desperation had turned into a miracle when he'd flicked his wrist while the blades were locked, wrenching the Katana from Drift's servos.

The applause breaking the silence between the two mechs made Prime grin behind his mask. He thought nothing of it as Drift reclaimed his own weapon to go again.

Prime didn't realize his face plates had shifted, changing how they were positioned around his optics, a bit of encouragement from his audience had gone right to his already tried processor. Most wouldn't see the change, he's relied on those less observant for years as to gain the upper hand in a fight.

Too bad Drift read him like a book.

The little bit of cockiness off centered his balance, sending him down with a rather spectacular crash than made the humans wince in sympathy, well most of them did...Rachel outright smirked, earning a slap on her arm from Jessi.

"The eyes speak as much as the mouth..." Optimus winced as his shoulder creaked, threatening to give out when he tried to push himself back up. Drift stepped in, sliding his arm through Prime's and helping him up, "...for the eyes are the mirror of the soul..."

Prime nodded, reopening his vents and letting the cool air flow through his hot systems, letting his processor catch up with his motor relays, internal diagnostics checking over his systems to ensure he could continue safely, not that he'd listen to them.

Sparks flew when the blades connected again, the polymer beginning to wear out after the heavy abuse. Prime held his own for several minutes, flowing through the movements with ease. The longer he remained upright, the more actual blows he dealt that struck the blue, black, and silver armor, the better Prime felt about how he was doing, the building confidence was kept in check by the blows still striking his own armor, his legendary patience held, even without the soft hum of the Matrix adding to his internal strength.

The calm didn't last long, the torn up field had been bad when they started, the soil loose and hard in uneven sections, some mud still buried beneath soft dry crusts that made footing uneven. After their own movements had stirred it up even more, it was just as bad as some of Prime's worst battlefields, minus smoking metal and guns.

He stumbled, giving enough of an opening that Drift was able to disarm him and send him back into the dirt with a single but powerful move.

"Why do I get the feeling you are laughing at this?" His tone was sharp and angry, optics narrowed dangerously as Drift checked his blade.

"Laughter cannot bring back what anger has driven away." Prime growled at that, glaring at Drift as he winced and forced himself to stand yet again. His processor jumped on the farm's wireless internet, finding an appropriate come back, voice almost snarling, "Laughter is the hiccup of a fool."

That earned an equally feral growl, "No one was ever hurt by laughter."

Optimus scoffed, grimacing as his knee refused to straighten. The samurai helped him up again, waiting to make sure Prime could stand. The taller mech groaned softly, optic shutters closed tight as he rode out the mild cramp in his cabling. Primus he was getting old...

He clicked out something in their native tongue, meant as just a comment in general...it was taken in the wrong way...

Drift twisted his wrist, tightening his grip on Prime's shoulder and forearm...

Ironhide swore loudly as he leaned back from the mech suddenly half on his work table of a flat bed trailer.

Optimus groaned, still trying to process how in the pit someone half his size and a third his weight was able to throw him that far. Ironhide was chuckling as he helped Prime back up, brushing off his back plates where metal shavings had gotten stuck to them.

"Take it easy Drift...Prahm's not as handy with that kind of blade, this is just practice."

"Tomorrow's battle is won during today's practice."

Optimus choked a short chuckle out, stepping back over the fence and into the sparring field. Drift passed back the long blade, nodding as Prime kept his grip loose but firm. They began again, this time Prime's weariness fumbling his movements, making him respond just as badly. A wild swing glanced off Drift's shoulder, teh scarping noise grating on everyone's ears.

"Sloppy...your movements are faulty..."

"Not like I have an reference."

"No, you are acting with foolish stupidity." Drift's tone was aggravated, optics narrowed as he flicked his wrist out and sent Prime's blade flying. Optimus retaliated by gripping the Katana and yanking it from the other mech's grasp, ignoring his now bruised and slightly bleeding servo.

"Stupidity begins with honesty, be honest here Prime, your actions are foolish and unthoughtful...what are you doing, you're acting worse than a dead beat 'con!"

The taunt hit home, Prime roaring out as he lunged, tackling Drift to the ground and sending a punch into the side of his helm.

Drift cried out in frustration, shoving Prime off him, "Calm yourself! Rage is a fool's weapon!"

Optimus snarled, "Rage is the fuel of revenge."

"One who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger."

Prime sighed at that, turning to see Kate smirking as she helped Rachel to her feet, even though the other human had been irritating her to no end for most of the day. She turned to face Optimus, eyes bright, and smiled.

Drift's voice cut through their silence, "It is easy to die...the difficulty is in living." The words hit home, Prime watching the humans laugh and just enjoy each others company. "It is one life, whether spent in laughing or in weeping...you decide."

xxx

xx

xxx

Optimus winced as Ironhide worked a clog of dirt out of his shoulder joint, groaning as he tried to straighten his back strut, sighing as it wasn't much use to relieve the pain. Kate was silent as she set up the pressure washer, the heater fixed and getting the cold well water to a comfortable temperature as she began to hose off Prime's legs. Drift watched from his position nearby, tending Prime's blade since Optimus' servos were shaking too bad to remove the polymer and sharpen the metal.

Her headset rang, and she shifted the sprayer gun in her hand to answer it, popping the ear buds into her ears to keep both hands free.

"Hello...hey Sarah, how's NYC and your internship?...Yeah? Now? Hang on..."

It took a second for Kate to connect to the public comm channel, voice out loud and in the bots processors, ":Kate to Rachel and Sunstreaker.:"

:Devil's painters here, how may we be of service?:

Kate rolled her eyes, adjusting the spray width to get into the sensitive joints without hurting them. ":Okay smart asses, Sarah's on the phone, saying she's got an in to her project and requested you two as back up, already called in transportation, just need you two to lock and load.:"

:*sigh* Do we have to? I don't even like Sarah!:

:Sunny shut up, we'll be ready Boss, what time is pick up?:

":Five minutes, gotta be in NYC by 4:30 her time.:"

:Mkay...we is out boss, check ya later!:

Optimus grimaced as the water hit a nasty dent in his side, Kate sighing as her hose tangled before fixing the pressure.

"I'm back Sarah...they're good to go, wish you luck...yep...oh no, just hosing off a bot after a sparring match...no...you'll like him, well I do...'kay, talk to you later...oh and your brother's here...your brother...Leo...yes the idiot...bye."

Ironhide snorted as he worked on Prime's back plating, digging rocks out of creases and tugging bent panels back into place.

"How in the Pit are they supposed to get to New York in less than six hours?"

"If you look up, there are no limits."

Both mechs turned to follow Drift's gaze, watching a small grey dot on the horizon grow larger as it flew closer, dropping lower as it neared.

"Emily and Skydive."

The F16 leveled out at just over two stories above the ground, jet engines straining as Sunstreaker ran beneath the flyer before jumping up and grabbing the landing gear tires and swinging up against the belly of the fighter jet. Skydive's armor panels shifted, changing to brace the yellow twin against him as the yellow faded to gunmetal gray to blend in.

Emily waved from the cockpit, Sarah climbing up from where she'd been tucked against Sunstreaker's shoulder to sit behind the Air Force pilot and buckle in.

Skydive sent Optimus a short ping before jerking upright sharply, gaining height before rocketing to the North East.

"Going...going...gone."

* * *

><p><strong>Tada! Sorry it took so long, life's getting crazy so updates may take awhile...<br>**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	24. It's not over

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: Any of Drift's proverbs, well most-I made up a couple, can be found from special dictionary's 777 Japanese proverbs.**

**Warning: Swearing**

:Comm link:

_"Radio/Bee's Lyrics..."_

**To _Guest_: I'll try to work her in more, have a plan laid out for the rest of the chapters and she does come in more. And you're right, her and Mikaela are awesome. Thank you!  
><strong>

**To Shadow Kat: Yes Drift was a lot of fun to do last chapter. Hey, I have snow too! Thank you as always devoted reader!**

**From now on the chapters get longer as I get heavier action parts and stick to my little outline I drew up when I picked out the title song, hope you guys like more reading! Reviews are nice too!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-Four<br>**

**It's Not Over  
><strong>

Xxx _November__  
><em>

Optimus woke up twelve hours later not feeling well, coming out of recharge was so slow...groggy and sick to his tanks as the parasite shifted against his systems uncomfortably. Half his neural sensors were offline, the other half were either numb or...

Cold...

The bitter pain that hit them with cold temperatures made his frame ache, not counting that all of him was cold as he struggled to activate his internal heat core. When that didn't work he figured he should get up an move, keep the energon in his veins moving and wear off some of the chill.

Kate yelped, slipping off the truck nose and clinging to the hood edge, one foot banging against the shifting metal panels and jerking Prime back to reality. She moved just enough for him to collapse back to a solid truck and not hurt her.

"Just stay put Optimus."

He barely heard her, and when he tried to answer he only managed to choke, vocoder grinding painfully as he coughed. So fraggin' cold...

Kate swore, at least he assumed so, the word didn't make it through his numb and buzzing audio receptors to his processor to be understood, her tone was enough as her movements sped up. Took him a few more minutes to realize she was scraping ice off his windshield and paneling. Someone else was on his truck back, technically his legs as they cleared the hitch plate and tires.

The air temperature was much lower than predicted, the cold front must have sped up overnight and the light rain predicted turned into freezing rain and slush, his working temp gauge read the wind chill in single digits. His comm link was down, the cold having sapped most of his energy as it was, self-repair systems were deactivated even if they would have worked with the parasite stuck on part of them. Audio feed began to clear as his internal heater core finally kicked on, first keeping his processor going as energon went from sluggish to slow, not much of an improvement but he wasn't able to be picky about it. Kate was talking to him non-stop now that she knew he was awake, Cade cutting in from his back tires whenever Kate ran out of breath.

The sounds of ice scrapers on glass and metal replaced the dull buzzing in his audio receptors. Any Autobot who had recharged in alt mode out in the yard was covered in a sheet of cold ice, frames chilled and systems half numb. Optimus was relatively clear already as sensors began waking up more. The clouds were gone and the sun was helping to ease the chill out of him as the blue paint shifted to absorb solar power. Kate was using a bucket of slightly warmed salt water to clear his lights, a toothbrush scrubbing at the ice coated on the optical sensors. Once clear, he looked around the best he could with the mostly forward facing lights.

Ironhide was up and stretching, working the chill out of his joints as his cannons hummed, pumping heated energon between them and the rest of his frame to maintain heat. Hound had almost clear of ice, Cheryl in his cab trying to get his engine to start, it wouldn't turn over even with an oil pan heater stuck underneath him. Hoist was driving around already, engine blasting as his heater fogged the windows, he was heading with Jessi and Shane to check on Red Alert and get the door open, none of them were going to be able to stay out in this for long if they were already chilled.

On the bright side, Huffer had been down in the ship all night, and was warm and running as he and Carly fed the cattle Optimus was supposed to a couple hours ago...kinda hard when he was unconscious and frozen over. Tracks and Trailbreaker were also up and moving, albeit a little slow. Most of the Bots had the sense to go inside when the weather threat had come...doesn't mean all did...

Cade hopped off Prime's tire guard, both him and Kate backing up to let Optimus have room to stand. It took him a minute to reroute heat to his t-cog, then another to transform, remnant ice cracking from where is had blown between panels and out of reach. He winced once upright, crouching to keep out of the wind and clamping armor panels tight to his frame. Cade was watching him, Kate had rushed over to where Leo and Tessa were scrambling to get Bumblebee warmed up as fast as possible, and keep the Camaro from panicking.

Bee hadn't done well with bitter cold since Sector Seven, the first winter with Sam had been warm in Nevada, the first time he visited the base in the mountains at Hoover Dam, he'd almost had a panic attack from the cold seeping in his frame.

If anything ever bothered the scout it was ice, he didn't mind snow, but ice and harsh cold winds scared him. A natural fear that hadn't been helped when he'd been just about made into an ice block. The rapid freezing of the liquid nitrogen hitting his frame while he was conscious had been downright painful and traumatizing as his systems had shut down before his processor could go numb to it all. Trapped on his own frame...

Optimus watched as Kate ignored the common sense on cold glass and went ahead and dumped warm water over Bee's windshield and window, Leo right behind her in scraping the slush off as fast as he could. Tessa had been using salt and warm water to clean off the driver's side door, diving into the cab and immediately starting Bee's engine when his radio gave off a pained whine. Prime's comm blared online, the scout panicked and only half able to wake up with his systems chilled almost dangerously.

Prime did the same thing Kate had, speaking over the comm endlessly to keep Bee from panicking and trying to transform with Tessa in his cab. Ironhide joined him on the channel, taking over when Optimus flinched as Bumblebee cried out, vocoder straining with the noise as the engine choked, finally turning over and activating the scout's heater core.

Cade joined the three on the outside, getting Bumblebee clear of any ice and moisture as he and Leo rubbed towels over the metal to dry it and try and wake up sensory nodes. Kate brought out her secret weapon, a king sized electric blanket Cheryl had splurged on last year when winter was bitter cold. Worked great for warming up an autobot small enough to fit underneath.

Bee's soft whines died down as his systems slowly warmed and activated, his frame still shook slightly but that was more coming off the battle protocols that had slammed him awake the klick his sensors had registered human movement and then the cold.

Once he was warm enough, Kate and Leo hauled the blanket off him, Tessa climbing out and all them having to jump back when Bumblebee transformed in a hurry, battle mask snapped over his face plates. Ironhide kept him from running, arms wrapping around the scout in a flash and holding until the shaking stopped.

The scout relaxed against his former guardian, humming softly as he drooped, already exhausted. They all were, barely having woken up and already needing more recharge.

Instead of walking around or driving, the bots retreated to the ship, most doubling up in the berth rooms to have enough room. Not that that bothered any of them. Ironhide and Optimus headed into the weapon specialists old room two doors down from the weapons vault, a reinforced and extended berth already built into one wall for the leader. Kate, Connor, Cade, and Tessa joined 'Hide on his when the black mech sat down. Optimus was already laid out on his own under a thermal blanket, half asleep as he rested his helm on an arm.

"What happened to Bumblebee? I know you guys don't handle cold well with electric and mechanical systems...but he was just about to shoot us."

Connor winced, glancing to Ironhide to pass on the duty of explaining, having heard the story already when they met.

"*_sigh_* Bee was captured by a group known as Sector Seven the night Prime, Jazz, the Doc, and I made planet fall. They shot cables through some of his joints to bring him down, using your planet's weak excuse for cryogenic technology to restrain him..."

"Basically Cade he was tied up, laid out, and being frozen while partially conscious. Fully aware and feeling everything but unable to move and fight. I don't know what all they did, the limited file information we've been able to hack into and pull doesn't tell much, they didn't get very far in whatever they were doing."

Kate's explanation kept Ironhide from snapping if he'd continued, his servos having tightened into fists as he'd spoken.. Optimus had tensed as well, the conversation dropping once Cade nodded.

Tessa shifted, "Just how bad can cold be to you guys?"

"Numbs us...cold enough long enough and we drop into stasis...could technically last forever like that if brought out of it properly with energon available, sure glad First Aid keeps medical grade stored up, the dispenser is going to be running overtime to keep up with all of us consuming more now that the cold's finally set in."

Kate rolled her eyes, groaning as she fell back to lay out on the metal berth completely, "Don't remind me 'Hide! First week of November and snow already! Stupid Iowa winters...bitter cold, too much wind, and lots of snow..."

"Snow running! Yes! Hey Hide when do you want new snow tires?"

"Connor!"

"What?"

Tessa shoved him lightly, smirking as he fell over dramatically before standing and climbing up to sit on Hide's thigh, laying back on the warm metal.

"You should get a TV in here Triple B."

Cade snorted, "Triple what?"

"B, Big Black and Bad."

The mech scoffed, rolling his optics as a digit tip lightly flicked Connor's side. Tessa smiled before climbing down the mech's leg to head out, "Gonna go find Bee and hang with him, I know Springer and Hot Rod have a TV in their room, they were saying they'd put a bed in for Bee."

"Again with the TV! What is it with you lazy humans and watching that thing?"

Kate laughed, ignoring Ironhide's outburst as even Cade and Optimus chuckled, the blue and red mech having shuttered his optics but not quite asleep yet.

Tessa only waved goodbye before jogging out the door before it could close, the damaged sensors couldn't always pick up on tiny organic life signals.

"A TV will be something to do besides be in the training room 'Hide, if today is any sign, it's going to be a long Winter."

That made both mechs groan, Iowa wasn't known for nice winters, temps hit below zero and could stay there or lower for days. Not good on a bot's systems.

Their collective silenced stretched on, only broken by Optimus' frame relaxing and systems dropping into a softer hum as he began to fall back into recharge now that he was warmer.

"Kate."

"Yeah Hide?"

"Why in the Pit is Sarah in New York?"

"Internship."

"With? She's medical."

"Medical and mechanical technology innovations."

Ironhide sighed softly, glancing down at the young adult sprawled out on top of her coat with a data pad she'd pulled from an inside pocket. "So why she need Rachel and Mr Sunshine?"

"New project release."

"Kate."

"Hide."

"_Katherine_."

"_Ironhide_."

"Both of you stop it."

Optimus' low voice rumbled across the room, earning a smirk from Cade as both ducked their heads when he open an optic enough to glance at them.

"It's classified Big Guy, she doesn't even think she'll get it to work, if she does there's still the chance it won't make it. Sarah almost didn't tell me until she was notified that the relocate order was pulled."

Ironhide shook his helm but let the conversation drop, shifting so he was more leaning back against the wall than sitting as he crossed his arms over his chest plates, watching Optimus recharge. Cade joined Kate when her flipping through patrol reports that basically repeated themselves turned into watching a movie saved on the tablet. Most reports listed nothing, one or two stating suspicious cars to the far South near the last battle ground. Prowl's had notes on any traffic stops he and Cheryl had, his patrols usually overlapped their work shift. A couple of the younger mechs had gotten bored on their shifts, turning the reports into a bit of a joke to see who could aggravate Kate faster.

October 30th, 2014: Shift 6: 3pm-6pm

Highway 22 Northbound to County Road 215 Westbound and return

Tree

Rock

Grass

Ditch

House!

Tree

Tree

Fence

Barn!

...

So far Kate was ignoring them, but Optimus wasn't going to find it amusing when he read them over later...

xxx

xx

xxx

_New York City, New York_

_JFK Commercial Private Terminal: Gate E16_

_1800 Hour_

xxx

It didn't surprise Sarah one bit when the C130 Hercules jet taxied to the gate, three humans and three holoforms exiting onto the walk once the engines were shut down and cooling off.

Skydive made excellent time to the base were Silverbolt was waiting just south of NYC with Nathan ready to fly. The massive flyer's size was needed with the cargo they would oh so hopefully be returning with. Not because of size, but because of the space needed for stability and Sarah having to work fast while on a plane.

Emily was bouncing as she rushed to give her friend a hug, short blonde ponytail bobbing behind her as she shrugged out of the pilot jumpsuit sleeves and tied them around her waist. Nathan remained in his, unzipping his jacket enough to flash Sarah a glimpse of the weapons concealed within. Rachel was in paint flecked black jeans, yellow tank and black leather jacket, almost matching Sunstreaker's holoform's outfit, only her boots were knee high heels versus regular combat ones. Skydive was just about as hyper as his pilot, hugging Sarah and spinning her around with a laugh, despite the med student's protests.

Silver's holoform hung back, the mech still nervous around people, especially in public, and even more so around Sarah whose temper and work ethics were becoming known to rival Ratchet's. Another reason the Bots preferred First Aid...

Both Silver and Sky were in pilot jump suits, military rank insignia on their shoulders proudly, if one looked close enough an autobot emblem was stitched into the badges on their chests almost invisibly.

"Okay guys thanks for getting here, I've already wiped the memories of the bases Em and Nate, you two are on vacation drills in Florida, and Sky and Bolt, your technically both in maintenance until further notice so no one is going out to check how many planes are in the hangar. The industry warehouse was just emptied last week and a new shipment of technology to be stored was been moved in yesterday. As head Intern on the fast track to instant placement upon completion, my department head said to go through each container and categorize everything. Meaning we have until tomorrow at six am to check one hundred shipping containers, get out what we need, leave the warehouse and get back here to load up Silverbolt. We have to be in the air and out of range of base before seven when my department head is supposed to check the records I turn in while technicians go through the containers themselves."

Rachel sighed, arms crossed as she leaned onto one hip, "Tell me you got the categorizing done already."

Sarah glared, "Of course, got that done last night, and I know where most of what we need is, just need the bot scanners for the rest in the actual industry labs, I can't tell the difference between a couple."

Sunstreaker nodded, shifting on his feet. "Let's get moving then."

xxx

_...industry labs_

_0423_

xxx

Rachel yawned behind a hand as the other snapped the latches shut on the containment case, feeling rather satisfied for taking the parts from this company. It wasn't stealing...merely returning. Sky was scrambling to erase any sign of Sarah's work for the last eight months in the company from their computer data, especially video footage and pictures, Emily was helping Sunstreaker carry cases out to the waiting semi trailer, the two lifting them into the racks hanging on the walls and ceiling of the trailer. The main piece would go underneath due to its size.

Nate and Silver were just finishing packing another case, standing up when Sarah squeaked suddenly. They all came to stand behind her as her fingers traced the outside of a broken part, skin barely brushing against the gouged metal.

"What if we're too late?"

Her voice was soft and tired, more from months of planning coming down to not just their successful escape, but the end result turning out the way they were hoping.

Sunstreaker snorted, "If we're too late then me and Sides go back to pranking."

Rachel slapped his arm, glaring when Sarah didn't even react. Nathan rested a hand on the female medic's shoulder.

"Then we do what should have been done, but we can't worry about that until we get back to First Aid, he's on standby waiting for us. Let's get moving."

She nodded, standing and letting Silver who had the steadiest hands, rapidly removing the wires the lab technicians had been using to test the part in their own computers, replacing them with specialized ones in a custom built containment case that should never have needed to be pulled out of the Ark's storage.

"Monitor showing successful transfer. Let's get out of here."

xxx

They ran into trouble as Silverbolt tried to take off, Sarah and Rachel were already welding broken metal pieces back together as Sunny used his weight to stabilize what they were doing to the whole thing from sliding around in Silverbolt's cargo area. Emily and Skydive had been able to get into the air without issue with airport traffic.

Silverbolt on the other hand was massive, needing the commercial runway completely empty and the taxi road clear for him to build up enough speed before even hitting the runway. Not counting that he needed the airways above him clear due to his size until he got high enough to be out of the way. Nathan was arguing with the control tower while Silver hacked into their network, radioing two other passenger jets to explain the situation.

Or actually give the cover story...military plane hauling volatile explosives.

Even funnier was the fact that if turbulence from Silverbolt taking off wrong rocked Sarah, her volatile temper might make the welder explode.

Nathan whooped loudly once they were cleared to move, letting Silverbolt have full control so to not set off the flyer's touchy anxiety. Sarah sighed in relief as the began to move, not even getting up from where she was working to strap into the seats against the wall. Rachel buckled in, only because if she fell she'd hit Sarah. Sunstreaker merely braced himself, one servo hovering over Sarah to grab her if she slipped.

One bit of turbulence sent her cussing wildly, but Silverbolt leveled out at the proper altitude within minutes.

"And we're off."

* * *

><p><strong>The longest part of the chapter was finding my notes that had the proper title of this chapter on it...<strong>

**Review please?**


	25. Cause Part of Me

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: Any of Drift's proverbs, well most-I made up a couple, can be found from special dictionary's 777 Japanese proverbs.**

**Warning: Swearing**

:Comm link:

_"Radio/Bee's Lyrics..."_

**To _Shadow Kat_: Yeah, Bee was in pain when Sector Seven got a hold of him, and Transformers Prime canon cold shuts a bot down, hence frozen Megatron. Cars won't start in temps that are too cold. I see what you did haha! You'll just have to keep reading! Thank you so much as always awesome reader!  
><strong>

**To _Zeng Xiao Long Sunstar_: Thank you for the faves and follows!**

**From now on the chapters get longer as I get heavier action parts and stick to my little outline I drew up when I picked out the title song, hope you guys like more reading! Reviews are nice too!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-Five<br>**

**Cause part of me  
><strong>

Xxx _November__  
><em>

Tessa groaned as her sleep was broken by something buzzing. Growling at it did nothing to cease the noise, and she blearily shifted to look around for the source. Kate was just as disoriented, she'd been out most of the day and night checking cattle and making sure the barns were insulated properly with winter hitting Iowa a month early, Tessa had watched her stumble in the house, hit the shower then dive into bed to sleep for twelve hours.

The buzzing died after a few minutes, then started up again, this time something small lighting up on Tessa's desk. Kate's cell phone...

Her growl reminded Tessa of her dad trying to wake Optimus when the mech had dozed off in the abandoned church they'd hidden in while in Chicago. The autobot hadn't been too welcoming of the disruption to his sleep, probably left over caution and anxiety from being on the run for so long.

"...'lo? Yeah...huh? Who is this? You've got what?!"

Tessa gave up on falling back to sleep, leaning up on her elbows when Kate froze in the middle of their bedroom, listening intently to the early morning caller.

"Is this info viable?...Yeah I get that, I can't take that risk right now if it's a dud..."

Whatever was being said, Kate must have agreed with it, she went from frozen to a blur of motion as she lunged under her bed to grab her boots, rushing out the bedroom as she asked rapid fire questions. Two seconds later the phone clicked shut, three after that Kate hit the house alarm button that set off a siren in the house and in the buried ship. Cheryl's new intercom crackled to life as Tessa raced up the stairs to figure what the hell was going on.

":Hide to the house, what is going on?:"

"Lock and load boys, we got visual on 'cons...and they're not going anywhere anytime quick so if we want to make a move we gotta do it now."

":Prime here, who all do they have sights on?:"

"Couple vehicons, a seeker..."

":Who else?:"

"Galvatron."

xxx

xx

xxx

_0700_

xxx

The bots were up and waiting for them by the time Cade and Tessa followed Kate outside, having donned bullet proof vests and body armor. Ironhide held a case of weapons out for them, and handed Cade the alien gun he was fond of. Tessa had a small handgun on her hip, she'd stay with Max and First Aid behind the front lines while Hoist brought back those needed attention from the field.

Kate was called out orders as to a driving formation, they had thirty minutes to make an hour and half trip to the old quarry where satellites were currently watching Galavtron and a group of his mechs, not the entire army but they'd take what they could get. Military back up was enroute and would meet up with them there.

Cade hauled himself up into Prime's cab, the door not even shut as he started moving as Kate jumped in as well, checking her hand gun while her rifle rested against the dash.

"Open comm on Optimus?"

"Yes."

"Good, alright guys listen up, at 0400 hours a satellite image picked up traces of con activity in the middle of Nebraska, a radius search then found the cons at Warshaw Gravel Pit twenty miles away. A set of snipers are in place and monitoring the location, so far it has been just even rotation of watch shift changes, the rest have been in alt mode and supposedly recharging. EMP units have been set up to scramble processing units as much as possible, the effects only last ten minutes, the blast zone encompassing the units will still hold the charge for eight, meaning we got about 120 seconds to get as close as possible and do as much damage before they really get going."

Hound's voice broke over the chatter of acknowledgements, bringing up a very valid point, "Since when do EMP charges effect us?"

Brains piped up suddenly, "Since most o' da 'cons ah made o' human tech! And wi' Megatron's mind feedin' 'em info da military has new weapons against us!"

Optimus growled softly, frame tensing at the thought of more weapons able to hurt his mechs...ones his enemy fed them...

Kate caught his mood, rubbing the steering wheel as she turned the CB off for a minute, "Easy Prime...these soldiers are good guys, I've worked with them for a couple years now, they won't do anything to risk you or your team...hell they'll call this off and risk blowing their cover if the EMPs don't go off right, they won't take the chance of the blast misfiring."

The last prime grunted, but settled enough to turn the comm back on as Ironhide started going over weapons details with everyone. Cade shifted in his seat, watching the sun rise in Prime's side mirror as they drove west way over the speed limit. They'd come at the quarry from the North, the military cutting off the south and west. East was a rock wall a hundred feet up...especially with the gravel pit having been dug_ down_...

xxx

Why in god's name did historians glorify battle? It was a damned mystery to Cade as he shifted on the rocky ground he was laid out on, aiming his gun down into the pit, hoping for Sideswipe to move enough so he could fire off a shot and not hit the wrong mech.

The resulting boom as he was able to finally shoot was satisfying...Sideswipe taking the help in stride and using the now severed arm to turn and stab the con blade through its owner's spark. Another one down...

The battle was messy, the EMP charge only lasted five minutes, meaning the cons were a lot more functional than the bots had been hoping for. Military reinforcements were caught about a mile and a half back, more cons on the move to rendezvous with their leader intercepting the men. With the planned forces now halved, the bots had moved from this being a strategic fight to an all out melee to take down as many as they could with as little loss as possible.

Tessa, Max, First Aid, Hoist, and Joshua were two miles East of the pit...and Cade was glad she wasn't near this...

Energon was flowing freely, none of the cons or bots really giving a flying frag if they were the ones leaking the precious blood, any humans that had been on ground zero had quickly moved to higher ground once the energon started flowing. No one wanted burns... now everyone not made of metal was a sniper and taking shots when they could.

Which wasn't easy...the KSI turned cons were vicious, taking hits like they were nothing and not going down til just about dismantled. The bots were guessing it was because they were man made first and then "energized", they had nothing to feel with besides basic neural systems...meaning this was a whole lot harder than it was supposed to be.

Kate cussed over the comm link, Cade adjusting his ear piece as she started giving directions from her vantage point up a nearby tree. Eyes above made the bots' moves a bit easier in case something came at them from behind.

:Oh yeah...frag off cons, I'm back I'm ragin' let's do this! Booyah!:

:GoingdownconsI'mgonnaripyanewaftholeyeahyabettarun!:

"Blaster! Blurr! Get off the comm channel, this is not twitter!"

Cade was just about to smirk and comment as well, then the sound of a rocket launching echoed out...

In reality it was Galvatron's monstrous gun, the blast had hit the rocks behind Prime when the mech had gone flying, slamming into the rock wall and barely rolling out of the way in time.

"Hey Optimus..."

:Yes?"

"Duck."

The Autobot leader hesitated, all Galvatron's hits were low, trying to hit below his chest plates and elicit a similar response like the last battle.

:Duck?:

"Duck."

Someone yelled Goose just as Optimus complied, it wasn't as funny as they had intended when Cade and Kate fired off shots, hitting Galvatron and sending the decepticon into a rage.

Kate winced loudly, "Ok, not quite the plan..."

:You think?!:

:Cool it Crosshairs, I don't see you comin' up with a plan.:

:Oh shut up Hound!:

"And whose idea was it to have an open comm network?"

xxx

xx

xxx

Optimus spat out a mouthful of energon, he'd stupidly bit down on his glossa when a punch to his face had sent him stumbling.

Galvatron chuckled darkly, optics watching Prime with amusement as the blue and red mech regained his balance, beginning to back away from the rest of the group to lead Prime away from back up.

The last prime's spark throbbed as he got a good look at his enemy with Galvatron stepping into full sunlight. Being out of KSI's control, Galvatron had adapted to look more like Megatron...armor losing it's sleek seams and going more jagged. The rough exterior and sheer power emanating from the mech only made things worse...

The con must have sensed Optimus' thinking, a wicked grin shifting the faceplates into something that made the prime cringe. The look once used to fill his spark with mischief when his brother had come up with a crazy idea to get the younglings into trouble, as the war progressed that look then meant Prime was about to either get his aft handed to him or that Megatron was way too over confident in something soon to fail.

Now it sent chills running through his frame...

"Do I make you uncomfortable _Prime_...look around you...my mechs are all newer...better..._stronger_...and yours? Desperate fugitives."

"No more desperate than yours...hiding out like a scraplet hive?"

Galvatron snarled, lunging at Optimus and swinging a punch at his helm, the prime blocked it with ease, landing a solid blow against the other mech's shoulder, damaging some of the wires as the weak earth metal armor bent.

The Decepticon wasn't immortal...

Something was pulling at Optimus' spark, and he stupidly let it...thinking it was just neural responses as his battle protocols worked overtime to keep his systems running.

He didn't expect the swirling chaos that was what used to be his brother's spark to invade his thinking...

The agonizing rage that ripped into his very core made him choke, collapsing to his knees as something attacked his very being...tearing through his spark as not even the Matrix could stop its power.

Galvatron laughed as he tried to crawl away, stepping closer and stomping a ped on Prime's ankle, only laughing harder as Prime shuddered at his touch, EM field trembling as the darker one forced its way in.

Megatron had never been like this...he may have come to despise the Autobots, despise the title of Prime...even downright hate what Optimus himself stood for...but the warlord couldn't even bring himself to hate his brother...

This...thing...wasn't Megatron...something else had added itself to Megatron's consciousness when it had moved to this new form...and it wasn't something Prime recognized...

From the klick he'd first encountered his older brother's EM field and ignited the bond between their sparks like any sparkling meeting their sibling would...Prime knew everything there was about his brother...whether Megatron liked it or not...got both of them into a heap of trouble as younglings...

Now...whatever this was it wasn't Prime's brother...

He cried out as the feeling of looming dread began to tear at his internal resolve, tugging at old memories and shredding them, ripping apart who he was from the inside out.

Kate was yelling at him over the comm, having switched to his private channel when he lost connection with the main. Galavtron either noticed or guessed, digits grabbing at his antenna, trying to rip them off.

Optimus knew pain...but this was something else...it wasn't just the fact that his antenna were deep in his helm...but the fact that it was like some random stranger shoving their fingers in another's ears or mouth..a horrible violation...

He roared, tossing his head as his servos clawed at the pair gripping his helm, trying to pry them loose without causing further damage. Galvatron just laughed...the sound haunting Prime's spark as it hit his audios.

That feeling attacked his spark again, doubling its efforts with Galvatron so close to him...their EM fields woven together so tightly that he could feel every emotion running over Galvatron's frame...

It made him sick...

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><p><strong>This battle is kicking my butt...I don't like how this turned out...<br>**

**Part One!**

**Review please!**


	26. Dead and in the ground

**Summary: Living with the Autobots has become normal for the Yeager family, they moved states to keep a low profile, kept the remaining 'Bots out of trouble for a whole year…then Optimus came back…and it all went to the Pit.**

**Disclaimer: I own except those you don't recognize, and even then I tweaked others a little...OH! And I do not own Daughtry's "It's Not Over" that I've been using as the title and chapter titles...it fits my story and I love it's theme for the fourth movie, kinda forgot about til now...whoops  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: Any of Drift's proverbs, well most-I made up a couple, can be found from special dictionary's 777 Japanese proverbs.**

**Warning: Swearing**

:Comm link:

_"Radio/Bee's Lyrics..."_

**To _Enternalis_: Thank you for the faves and follows!**

**WHOA! One Hundred and Six Reviews!**

**Thank you!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-Six<br>**

** Dead and in the Ground  
><strong>

Xxx _Mexico, Two months before AoE__  
><em>

He was physically exhausted to his core, frame shaking as it tried to pull on energon that just wasn't there. Mentally he was drained...processor aching as it tried to calculate...to think...to exist...

Emotionally...to say he was a wreck the understatement of the century, at this point he was just burned out, there was nothing left.

Half of his systems were damaged, some beyond repair and close to causing serious issues within him. Thick armor panels were dented, some with full on holes, cracks weakening seams and connections to the point it creaked dangerously if he moved to much.

At some point he knew he'd made it across the country's border, having drifted to a halt at a truck stop where the gas prices were in a different currency. His systems were barely able to handle the command to alert him for proximity, he had to adjust the range twice, tightening it when he was unable to have his scanners extend too far. Shutting down made him edgy, it was dangerous...but at this point he had no choice.

Recharge came fast, dropping him into nothingness, it used to be something he welcomed, now he feared it. Not because he feared the idea that he might not come back online due to an attack as he was unconscious.

No, he feared waking up...

xxx

xx

xxx

0200

Outpost Sigma

Unit 13

xxx

:Command Suspicious activity identified, awaiting directive.

::Directive: Identify

:Identified, target sighted, awaiting directive

::Directive: Confirm target

:Target confirmed, awaiting directive

::Directive: Maintain surveillance

:Maintaining surveillance, target has initiated proximity sensors, strength: weak, distance: twelve point eight foot radius, target had initiated shut down.

::Understood, Unit 6 and Unit 7 have been notified. Directive: Prepare for attack

:Understood

xxx

0245

xxx

::Unit 6 operational, Unit 7 awaiting placement, Unit 13 standings?

:Unit 13 operational, awaiting directive

:/:Unit 6 reporting, target sighted, target locked

:Unit 13 reporting, target sighted, target locked

::Understood, proceed with operations

:Understood

:/:Understood

:":Unit 7 reporting, order confirmation requested, target sighted and locked

::Orders Unit 7, proceed with operations

:":Understood

xxx

0302

xxx

:Target fighting back

:/:Target has received heavy damage to upper frontal area

:":Target down! Repeat Target down!

::Maintain positions! Objective: Restrain!

:Target loose! Target up-

:":Restraints have been nullified, Target on the move

:Awaiting directive!

::Directive: Unit 6, 7, 13, pursuit, follow target

:/:Understood

:Understood

:":Understood

xxx

0317

xxx

:Command, target is pinned, awaiting directive

::Directive: hold position, maintain target's current location

:Understood

xxx

0319

xxx

::Unit 13 weapon is deployed

:Understood, awaiting weapon

xxx

0324

xxx

:Command, target sustained heavy damage, multiple shots to upper frontal plating. Approximate damage scoring 10.7% higher than previous target's final result

::Understood, weapon status?

:Weapon engaging target, awaiting directive

:Directive: maintain position

xxx

0327

xxx

:Command! Target is lost! Repeat Target is Lost!

::Define Unit 13!

:Weapon received hit, resulting disruption in field of sight, target escaped, tracking now

...

:Command confirm reception of response

...

:Command?

xxx

xx

xxx

Washington D.C

0628

Operations Office

xxx

He leaned on the desk, glaring at the satellite monitors and cameras on soldier helmets and the surrounding area to capture every angle they could. It still wasn't enough. The target was gone...

The first real break in years after the original mandate had been trashed. And now they had nothing...

Technicians were struggling to pull up other cameras, trying to cut through the digital distortion and discover where the target had disappeared to, even a direction gave them an idea..

It was no use, they had nothing.

Unit 6, 7, and 13 were radioing in with request for orders, not sure what to do with Command operations not responding to their hails and the weapon having already left the scene.

A low growl slid from his throat as he slammed a fist down on the desk top, mildly amused at how the technicians jumped.

"Carson!"

"Sir!"

He didn't turn to face the smartly dressed soldier, instead handing over files without looking. "Begin clean up operations."

"Yes sir!"

"Zimmerman!"

"Sir!"

This time he turned and fully addressed the soldier, a slight smirk on his face, this particular soldier was one of his best, lethal with almost any weapon handed to him, and knew more ins and outs with their targets than most. He should, he used to work with them...

"Contact Savoy and get his ass back here, I want to know how in the hell they let him get away. Then send a message to Lockdown, ask him how _he_ let the target slip through his fingers."

"Yes sir."

"And further more...get on the network and get busy, I want to know where that damned thing is immediately."

"Yes sir."

He nodded, handing over a file to Zimmerman as he headed out of the command operations room.

"Oh and Zimmerman, don't you dare stop until you find the objective."

"Yes sir."

"Find me Optimus Prime."

xxx

xx

xxx

One week later

xxx

He really shouldn't have done that...forget the whole recharge out in the open bit...never should have trans-scanned another vehicle...his energy levels were gone, no reserves, nothing in his tanks, systems pulled residual power from weapons and other parts just to remain active enough for him to remain alive...the fact that he was conscious was downright hilarious.

His chest burned, at least what he could feel of it, a lot of sensors were shorting out.

Engine on the brink of overheating, his entire frame shuddered as he drove North on Highway 19, not having a clue where he was going, it didn't matter, he'd drive until he was dead...there wasn't any hope for anything else.

Communications were shot, radiator had a hole in it bigger than his thumb, multiple rounds were still stuck in his armor, pulsing against the parts beneath, these weapons were completely new to him, meant to hit and hit hard. Holes, dents, scrapes, gashes, rips...name it his form had it somewhere, he was pretty sure something was broken somewhere but the pain relays couldn't distinguish between it and the missile still resting somewhere in him.

Mortar shells rattled around in places he had long since lost feeling to, shredding wires as they shifted. His axles shook, losing the ability to hold him upright on the road. The town just ahead was barely lit, too small to have anything open all night besides a single gas station convenience store on the opposite end.

He barely made it to something resembling shelter, forcing his wheels to roll that last couple yards when his engine finally gave out with a spluttering choke that rattled his entire frame.

He let out a soft noise, not quite a groan, he didn't dare be any louder than that, he had no strength to do so anyway.

Scanners were gone, audio cutting in and out as everything began to lose power and just give up. Visual sensors briefly cast around the dark room, losing focus and not really registering where he was. Something crumpled on the floor in front of him caught his attention just before he shut down, a half ruined piece of paper.

..._.-Theatre Presents!_

_First Time in Technicolor!_

_Wil...am Shakesp...re's_

_Henry V_

Ironic...he was in a theater, "All the world's a stage", well he was in his final act, curtain falling forever as he fell into stasis. His memory core probably wouldn't remember his location.

Where in the pit was Paris, Texas anyway?

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><p><strong>Background Chapter, bit harder to do than I planned... <strong>

**Thank you my awesome readers you guys are amazing! We made it over a Hundred reviews! I bet we can double that at least by the time I finish this!**

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